


The Dutiful Brother and His Sister's Way Too Handsome Boyfriend

by TangoMcGrand



Category: EXID (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-18 09:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5924095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TangoMcGrand/pseuds/TangoMcGrand
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yoongi's sister Hani is fake-dating Jimin to hide from her mother that she's gay, but Yoongi doesn't know this. All Yoongi knows is that he has had a not-so-little crush on Jimin for over a year and that its kinda hard to be a supportive dutiful brother when Jimin is just too blindingly beautiful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've read this fic before you may note that this used to be the eprologue, well! not anymore! Now it's the prologue!  
> One note: TA stands for Teacher's Assistant at the university I go to; they're like secondary to the professors they lead smaller groups of students to engage them  
> I have no idea how to find out how other schools do it i barely understand my own haha

Morning classes are probably the worst thing to ever happen to Yoongi and Monday morning 8am statistics seminars may be the worst thing yet. Yoongi is dead to the outside world, or at least he's sure he looks asleep enough to not be bothered. He has his head pillowed on his arms, face hidden in his sweater. There is absolutely no way he looks at all interested or even aware of his surroundings.

This is why Yoongi has no idea why the boy who sits next to him (instead of one seat over and next to the other guy) greets him like he expects a response. He hears the boy shift beside him, but he's not curious enough to look. Since this was a first year class that meant this kid was probably a first year student, and it is always first year students who are looking to make new friends.'Y _ou chose the wrong person_ ', Yoongi thinks but doesn't say or bother to look up.

Several minutes like this go by; several minutes meaning their TA is late. Yoongi decides to be a good acquaintance and at least recognize the kid as existent. He turns his head over slightly to eye the boy that sat beside him, “Shouldn't our TA be here by now?” He says conversationally.

The boy looks down to him surprised, “Yeah, I think so.” He looks down at his phone, “It's 8:01.”

Yoongi squints up at the boy, “You know if we all leave now then none of us can be considered individually responsible.”

The boy laughs quietly, “They're only a minute late at this point, you know.”

Yoongi grunts, “Well, wake me up when its time to ditch.” he pillows his face back in his arms, “Or if our TA ever get here I guess.” his voice sounds muffled by his sweater. Asken to be woken up turns out to be an unnecessary precaution as the TA enters the room only a minute later. Yoongi still gets a poke in his side to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep in those sixty seconds of quiet.

They go around the room to introduce themselves to each other. The process is painful and uncomfortable, but Yoongi learns that the boy beside him's name is Jimin. He also, by the end of the day, has forgotten this important detail.

Jimin sits beside Yoongi almost everyday after that, having arbitrarily chosen to focus on Yoongi as his friend in that seminar apparently. Yoongi finds he doesn't actually mind at all, and indeed Yoongi discovers that the good days are the days where he sits beside Jimin. The boy is all lame jokes, marshmallow cheeks and eye smiles. He's easy to talk to; nonjudgmental and easygoing for the most part. He's also cute. Really really cute. So cute that it makes Yoongi simultaneously want to be around him more and also run for the hills. Yoongi settles for the compromise: just seeing him during his Monday morning seminars.

And so it happens that Yoongi develops a small negligible crush on his statistics acquaintance that he has also forgotten the name of.

 

. . .

 

There's a final project to do come second semester that the students were either allowed to do alone or in groups of two. Yoongi had immediately assumed from the first day of hearing about it that he would be doing it alone, but judging by the way Yoongi meets Jimin's expectant eyes and growing smile the minute the TA brings it up, Yoongi thinks safe to say that working alone was never an option. Not that he would have chosen that option given the choice.

That day Jimin and Yoongi leave the seminar room together already discussing the days they will meet and their expectations for the project. The fact that Yoongi is even willing to start discussing the upcoming project two months before it was due may have more to do with a certain cute statistics partner rather than the actual distant deadline of the project.

As testament to this disposition, instead of immediately discussing the project, one of the first things that Yoongi says once they are out of the classroom is, “Hey, what's your name again?”

Jimin looks at him strangely, “You don't know my name?”

Yoongi shrugs, “I barely even know my own name.”

Jimin laughs, “Oh?” he says, “Yoongi?” his voice lilts at the end like he wasn't entirely sure.

Yoongi ignores the butterflies in his stomach from the information that Jimin had remembered his name, instead he says “Your name is Yoongi? That name sounds so familiar for some reason...” he trails off.

“Jimin.” Jimin says, “My name is Jimin.”

“Jimin.” Yoongi repeats. He doesn't forget again.

 

. . .

 

Jimin had an hour between their statistics seminar and his next class so he and Yoongi had moved to the cafeteria to talk about possible topics. By the time they had reached the cafeteria they had already been off topic, talking about allergies for some reason Yoongi can't remember. But once they're sitting Jimin pulls out his notebook and a pen and looks Yoongi straight in the eye like he expects something and Yoongi blanks.

It takes about thirty seconds of almost silence for them to mutually affirm that thinking alone without being able to look up potential topics online was useless. Instead, to do something 'useful' as Jimin put it, Jimin has Yoongi help him find the gym and then begs Yoongi to get a gym membership with him with such claims as “Please, I don't have any friends here.” and “You don't even have to work out just come with me sometimes its hard to go alone.” Yoongi has never been to a gym before, he had gym class but that was it, and he had never even been curious enough to want to see the inside of a gym. But something about the way Jimin's eyes get all round and his voice gets high, makes Yoongi barely even question his decision to agree.

It's not even a week after the project is assigned that Yoongi finds himself in Jimin's dorm room, sprawled out on the floor while Jimin sat next to him on his laptop.

Considering they had planned this meeting ahead, perhaps Yoongi should have had the foresight to think about packing a lunch or made plans to eat something because Yoongi is starving. He'd just had two consecutive lectures, half an hour apart, and usually at this time he would be back at home eating his lunch. Instead he's on Jimin's floor dying of hunger. He pouts quietly, staring at the ceiling while Jimin scrolls through something on his laptop.

“Okay, but seriously what are we even going to do this project on?” Jimin says.

“I don't know,” Yoongi says listlessly to the ceiling, “All I can think about is pizza.”

Pizza.” Jimin repeats distantly,“We could do a statistical analysis on pizza maybe.” Yoongi looks at him briefly to see that Jimin's got his pen between his teeth, staring off to his left.

“On how many pieces of pizza could I fit into my stomach.” Yoongi says.

Jimin glances over at Yoongi without turning his head, “I'm not sure that's how this works.” he says.

“I'm absolutely certain I could fit a train-load; my stomach is so empty.” Yoongi states.

The corners of Jimin's mouth twitch around his pen, “I'm not sure that's how that works either.”

“Well that's what research is for.” Yoongi tells him seriously, pushing himself up onto his elbows. “Come'on let's go get pizza, in the name of science. I'll even pay for yours.”

Jimin scoffs a laugh,“We haven't even been working on this project for five minutes.”

“Eh, we still have two months. I won't be of any use to you if I've died of starvation, let's go.”

 

. . .

 

Yoongi has never really been a bad student and he almost feels bad for the way he keeps blowing the project off whenever Jimin brings it up. It's a bit irrational but maybe on some level Yoongi thinks that the moment they start the project implies the upcoming deadline and the end of the project and maybe Yoongi doesn't want to think about not having to see Jimin anymore. Would he still see Jimin? Could they keep up this friendship if they didn't have the project between them? If Yoongi pretends he doesn't care about the project maybe it doesn't exist. They were super off topic now, getting coffee at one of the coffee shops on campus.

“Okay but seriously, what would you do? I don't know what I would do.” Jimin is saying absentmindedly as he sips from his coffee.

“If I met my clone? I mean first things first I would probably be like 'Damn he's hot' and everyone would be like 'He literally looks exactly like you',” Yoongi replies without thinking too much, “and then I'd be like 'Aw shucks guys I didn't think I was that hot.'”

“You obviously do otherwise you wouldn't have said that.” Jimin says, eyes twinkling.

“I'd like to believe that seeing it with my own eyes would still come as a shock.” Yoongi says thoughtfully.

“But what if your clone tried to kill you?”

“Kill me? This has taken a turn.”

“But what would you do?”

“Kill the clone.”

“But what if you're the clone.”

Yoongi pauses, “I would wonder what was going on, why are you asking all these questions?”

Jimin shrugs, “That creepy story just made me think is all, like how would you actually react in that situation.”

“Well I just don't know, Jimin.”

Jimin is quiet for a moment, hands wrapped around his cup. He lifts it to his lips thoughtfully and then speaks around its edge, “I don't think you would kill him, I don't think you have it in you.”

Yoongi's cheeks burn, he doesn't know if he should be offended that Jimin thinks he couldn't kill a man. “You're right,” he says, “I'd probably try to kill him but that would just end in really kinky se-”

Jimin chokes on his coffee, cutting Yoongi off.

 

. . .

 

On Wednesday the following week Yoongi gets a text from Jimin.

 

_**Jan Feb 4, 11:45am** _

_I'm not having a good day today, do u have some time to come over here at some point?_

 

_**Feb 4 11:46am** _

_Yeah, im free after 3, whats up?_

 

_**Feb 4 11:46am** _

_I'll tell u when ur here_

 

 

Yoongi hadn't ever been invited to Jimin's dorm about something other than the project, he hadn't known Jimin for that long, and he's almost certain that he does not come across as the most supportive person in an emotional crisis so he doesn't know why he's the one that Jimin texts. He doesn't know how useful he can be but there's no reason not to meet Jimin's obscure request and Yoongi feels flattered in a way that Jimin had requested him.

It's Jimin's dorm-mate Taehyung who opens the door into Jimin's dorm for Yoongi. Yoongi only knew his name because Jimin and him had run into the guy when they had gone out together last week and Taehyung had bluntly asked who Yoongi was with his mouth full of chips. Yoongi likes Taehyung. As far as he could tell the boy was friendly, energetic and genuinely good natured and apparently Jimin loves the guy.

Yoongi heads up the stairs and goes to knock on the door of Jimin's room. He's greeted by a “Yeah?” and he creeps inside to find Jimin curled up in his blankets on his bed, laptop on his lap, looking up expectantly at him.

“Hey Jimin, everything okay?” Yoongi says by way of greeting.

Jimin's head bobs up and down in the midst of all his blankets, face pouting and hair messy. “Yeah, everything's fine, I'm just sad for no reason.” he says.

Yoongi pads over to sit beside Jimin on the bed, awkwardly putting his arm around the burrito that is Jimin. “Yeah, I've gotten that.” he tells Jimin, “It's okay.”

“Thanks for coming.” says the mass of blankets beside Yoongi.

“Thanks for giving me something to do.” Yoongi tells the blankets amiably.

Jimin's face peaks out from the folds in the blankets as he turns his head to look at Yoongi, “Hey, what do you do in your spare time?” he asks, “I left all my friends and family at home and I'm locked up in here all day because I have nothing to do.”

Yoongi frowns, “Don't you and Taehyung spend like literally all your time together?”

Jimin sighs, “Yeah,” he says tugging his blankets in closer. “And I love Taehyung, I do, but I miss my old friends. I used to see them almost everyday.”

Yoongi pats the blankets wrapped around Jimin's shoulder imagining that Jimin probably still feels it. “Are you sad because you miss your friends?”

Jimin blows air out of his nose, “I guess?” he says as more of a question than an answer. “I don't know, just everything is bugging me today, and I wanted to see you. That's all.” he pulls the blankets closer to himself again and looks dejectedly down at his laptop. Yoongi doesn't really know what to say. Jimin just wanted to see him? Why him? How close friends were they really after a semesters worth of seminar conversations and having seen each other out of seminar for less than a month? Yoongi thinks that he would have wanted to see Jimin too, but he's not entirely sure if he should say it.

Jimin sniffs and tugs at his blankets and so Yoongi says, “Dude, let me in on that blanket action. You look comfortable as hell.” Jimin looks at Yoongi curiously, mostly out of the side of his eye and Yoongi raises his eyebrows expectantly. Without another word Jimin starts fumbling around from within his blankets, struggling to get the blanket out from under him and free up an end for Yoongi. Jimin holds up the blanket end allowing Yoongi to shuffle inside and press his side up next to Jimin, putting his arm around his waist and wrapping that end of the blanket around the both of them. It shouldn't be so easy to fall into something that feels so intimate with a boy Yoongi doesn't know very well, but the entire process is disarmingly instinctive.

“About your earlier question,” Yoongi says gently in an attempt at making conversation, “I don't know what I do in my spare time. I sure don't study. I'm on the internet a lot, and sometimes I work on my music.”

“You make music?” Jimin asks with curiosity in his voice.

“Yeah, I just do it for fun. It gives me an outlet I guess.”

“Can I hear some?” Jimin asks softly.

Yoongi could count on one hand the amount of people he let listen to his music and even then they had only heard the rare stuff that he had been proud of and also hadn't put that much thought into. It always felt so intimate, like he was bearing a part of himself that he usually kept hidden, the part of him that cares about dumb little things and is willing to put a lot of effort into something he cares strongly about. Yoongi should, logically, tell Jimin to buzz off.

“I don't have any of it with me.” Yoongi avoidantly says instead.

Jimin makes a pouting face and it's not fair because it's so cute and Yoongi's heart is in his throat and how is he ever going to show Jimin his failed attempts at making something meaningful. “Will you show me later?” Jimin asks unassuming.

“Yeah.”

 

. . .

 

“You know, we only have a month left to do out project.” Jimin says casually from above Yoongi.

Yoongi startles slightly at the sudden noise, he hadn't even noticed that he was falling asleep. Neither of them had spoken for a long time, maybe hours. Yoongi has his head resting on Jimin's stomach, slowly being lulled to sleep by the soft press of Jimin's fingers carding through his hair.

He feels Jimin's hand stutter slightly at his jolt and his stomach give way slightly as he breathes a laugh. “Sorry, were you falling asleep?” Jimin says with laughter in his voice.

“Mm.” Is all Yoongi does to respond as he presses his nose further into Jimin's abdomen. He picks up his phone which had fallen out of his hand at some point apparently and unlocks it purposelessly.

Jimin yawns from somewhere above him, “I think I'm falling asleep too, maybe we should wrap it up for the day.” he says sleepily.

Yoongi never wants to move again. Jimin was so comfortable, and his stomach was so warm and Jimin was just such nice company that Yoongi wants to cry just thinking about leaving. “I'm too tired to drive home.” He says pitifully.

“Maybe you should just stay over.” Jimin says and Yoongi's heartbeat quickens, “Wait, that may have been a stupid suggestion.” Jimin's voice is adorably groggy “What are you going to wear tomorrow? Can you fit in my clothes? When do you have class?”

“I don't have class till one and I can wear the same thing I wore today, who the hell is going to notice anyway.” Yoongi says absentmindedly, “Do you have enough blankets to let me sleep on the floor though?”

“I thought you could just sleep in my bed with me, it doesn't have to be weird.” there's a pause, “Sorry.”

Yoongi almost chokes on his own intake of air, “Oh.” he says, and _Oh_ indeed because judging by the way Yoongi's hands clam up at the prospect, and the way his mind jumps immediately to how nice it would to hold Jimin – to be held by Jimin – his crush had gotten a little out of hand. “Yeah, okay.” he manages out without sounding too winded. He was actually consenting to lying in the same bed with a boy who made his heart want to jump out of his chest and he had absolutely no qualms about what it might lead to. Yup, his crush was completely out of hand.

 

. . .

 

Somewhere along the way Jimin became, not just a cute boy with a nice face and a blinding smile, but absolutely beautiful. Yoongi thinks its in the way that his eyes shine when he gets too excited, or in the way that one of his smiles could power a city for a week, or even just the shallow intakes of his breath as he falls asleep on Yoongi's lap. Jimin is beautiful, and Yoongi is head over heels for him.

That had been the last image Yoongi had of Jimin before he himself falls asleep, but as Yoongi blinks groggily he can see a figure hunched over in front of him on Jimin's bed tapping away at his keyboard. Only the glow of Jimin's laptop illuminates him, and he's curved away from Yoongi, and Yoongi thinks he still looks beautiful. Maybe it's in the slope of his spine or the way his shirt dangles loosely over his shoulders, or perhaps its just his silhouette that that somehow manages to just look like Jimin. Or maybe Yoongi's just tired and a bit delirious.

His eyes shift to Jimin's laptop screen, he's on a webpage reading about the migratory patterns of geese. Yoongi feels his throat close up, Jimin was working on their project, in secret alone because they had done jack-shit together and their project was due it two weeks. It dawns on Yoongi that he is an absolutely terrible partner.

Well, better late than never he supposes as he sleepily pushes himself up to scoot beside Jimin. “You working on our project without me?” Yoongi yawns.

Jimin glances over at him, “Oh, Yoongi.” He greets Yoongi, rubbing at his eyes, “No, I was just looking up potential topics that we could do. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you.”

Yoongi scratches at his bed head, “You didn't.” he says simply, moving closer to look at Jimin's laptop screen, brushing his shoulder up against Jimin's. “Geese, huh?”

“You got a better idea?” Jimin asks.

“No, geese are cool.” Yoongi responds, “Any luck?”

“Not so much.”

“Have you found any statistics on geese yet?”

“Not really, I was just reading up on them to see if there was any potential here.”

“Oh, do you have anything you want to analyze them against?”

“Not a clue.”

Yoongi breathes out a laugh, “Okay them, we'll start there I guess”

Even Jimin's voice is skeptical as he eyes Yoongi warily, “Okay.” he says.

Yoongi thinks quietly for a bit, “Well, uh,” he pauses, “What does your article say? Did you learn anything?”

Jimin snickers, “No I did not, well nothing noteworthy anyway.”

“Well fuck.” says Yoongi and Jimin looks amused. “Okay so we need something that we can perform statistical analysis on that's related to geese migratory patterns.” He says looking at Jimin's laptop intently.

“It doesn't have to be related to geese, that's just what I happened to be looking up.” Jimin supplies helpfully.

“No no.” Yoongi replies absentmindedly. “I like geese, at least it's something.” He lets himself fall quiet, Jimin looking at him expectantly. What the hell do geese migratory patterns have an influence on, okay actually that's easy because it's nothing. Better question: What the hell has an influence on geese migratory patterns, how can Yoongi quantify that, and more importantly why does he care. Wait no, that's off topic. Yoongi makes a thoughtful humming noise.

“Yeah it was a stupid idea, I don't know. I have no idea either.” Jimin says.

They sit there quietly for a bit and so Yoongi decides to think out loud, “Okay so hear me out.” he says suddenly and Jimin glances at him, “Technically we're not being graded on our ability to make connections between things, we're being graded on our actual statistical analysis. So as long as we have the numbers couldn't we literally pick any random bullshit and still be able to crunch the numbers. Something like, I don't know, tax rates. Yeah tax rates.”

Jimin stares at him bemusedly, “You're not serious.”

“Oh I'm deadly serious.” Yoongi affirms.

“Geese migratory patterns and tax rates.”

“Somebody's gotta do it.”

Jimin coughs out a laugh, “I honestly hate you so much.”

“Come on, maybe there's a government conspiracy hiding there. Let's uncover some government secrets.”

“This is a genuine question Yoongi, do you know how statistics work?”

“I know how governments work.”

Jimin laughs, “Yeah okay, whatever, let's discover government secrets.”

Actually working on the project; finding the numbers, comparing them, making plans for the rest of the project shouldn't be fun and maybe they should be a little more worried about the fact that doing research for a statistics project is making them cackle. But it's four in the morning and they're sleep deprived and maybe they aren't thinking too clearly about a project they've been putting off for over a month.

Yoongi's brain isn't working properly in general, too high on giggling and close proximity with with Jimin. Yoongi doesn't know how Jimin got so close but a second ago he had been giggling right next to Yoongi's ear, the tip of his nose brushing up against Yoongi's cheek and now Yoongi is facing him and Jimin's face is blurry and his laughter is playing warm patterns across Yoongi's lips. The way Jimin is smiling makes him shine brighter than the sun and Yoongi thinks he’s going to go blind if he doesn’t look away. Jimin’s warmth is infecting Yoongi, he feels saturated in it, tingling all over, his hands feel like they’re on fire. They’ve gotten so close together, Yoongi’s entire side is lighting up from brushing against Jimin and his face has gotten close enough that Yoongi could count the boy’s eyelashes.

Yoongi is 0.3 seconds away from kissing Jimin.

0.3 seconds pass, and Yoongi doesn’t kiss Jimin because he has some semblance of self-control god damn it and you can’t just go around kissing people unprompted. Instead he says “We’re gonna fucking fail this project.”

Jimin laughs and Yoongi imagines the longing that he sees in his eyes.

. . .

 

Yoongi doesn't know when he'd decided to run for the hills but it probably had a strong correlation with the fact that Namjoon had just recently tried to set Yoongi up with a girl and it suddenly hit Yoongi all the complications he was setting himself up for. And it didn't help any that the next day when he meets Jimin by chance, all he can think about doing is kissing him, right there, in the middle of the cafeteria where anyone could see. He was so overwhelmed that he hadn't even stopped to greet Jimin, he had just pretended that he didn't see him and when Jimin suddenly hugs him from behind by way of greeting, Yoongi's entire circuitry is so fried that he just mumbles something about having to go to the bathroom and then hides in a stall for the next fifteen minutes.

Wanting to kiss Jimin approximately 100% of the time is a problem that Yoongi is just not equipped to deal with. With the project due in less than a week and the deadline fast approaching, Yoongi's mind keeps bringing him back to what is going to happen to his and Jimin's relationship when the project is gone and what would happen if he asked Jimin on a date. He thinks it would be like any other time he spent with Jimin,with maybe coffee and creme and stupid conversations, but also maybe with secret smiles, hand-holding and trading chaste kisses. The prospect of it makes Yoongi's heart speed up, in what could either be excitement or maybe fear and Yoongi doesn't really know what to do with that information. But he knows he has made a pact with himself to never date a boy because dating girls is easy and nice and doesn't include telling the people he loves that maybe he likes boys too. It doesn't imply the same danger that people won't look at him the same way anymore.

To be fair maybe some people would be accepting; for instance Hani has always had an unshakable air of acceptance around her, and his friends have spoken about supporting the LGBTQA cause and even his mother is more aloof about the subject rather than outright homophobic.

But the thing is that Yoongi just can't know what would happen. Namjoon, and Seokjin and even Hoseok keep talking about girls and dating girls and Yoongi is fine with that, he likes girls too and it seems like such an unnecessary wrench to throw into conversation that he's impartial to more than one gender. _'Hey by the way I like boys too, just throwing that out there, not much I can do about it, sorry if you're homophobic'._ Yoongi thinks that if he brought it up he probably wouldn't be shamed or even looked down upon; he trusts his friends, but he still doesn't want to risk the dynamic he has built with them. There's always the possibility that they will treat him more carefully, or more reservedly. Whether or not they support the queer community or are in the queer community Yoongi thinks it's different if it's _him_.

Of course Hoseok had known about Yoongi's orientation ever since Yoongi had been fifteen and him fourteen, and that hadn't had any impact at all on their relationship. But Hoseok was Hoseok, and Hoseok was incredible, and telling Hoseok had still been a huge step for Yoongi. The thing is that Yoongi never actually has to take a risk like that again because that little detail about himself never actually had to see the light of day. It's not like Yoongi hasn't tried to drop subtle hints about it, just in case anyone cares to pick them up. He will do things such as using gender neutral pronouns or comment on the physique of people of all genders, but no one has ever given it a second thought. No one wants to, and no one needs to either because it's so much easier if it's just not a part of their dynamic.

Park Jimin though, had been the wrench in Yoongi's dynamic. Park Jimin with his soft lips, dark eyes and soft hair. Park Jimin had the potential to make Yoongi throw all his inhibitions aside just to give _them_ a chance and that in itself was absolutely terrifying.

So Yoongi does the only thing he's equipped to do; he runs.

He starts ducking his head around Jimin, laughs less enthusiastically around Jimin, brings up the project more often. The next time Jimin asks him to come over Yoongi explicitly asks if it is for the project because if not he “doesn't have time” which is a lie of course; Yoongi always has time for Jimin, even if he has to make it. But maybe Yoongi is trying to reinforce to himself that he and Jimin were always statistics partners; not friends, and it was the project that always brought them together. If Jimin is just Yoongi's statistics partner then Yoongi doesn't have to deal wanting to kiss Jimin after the project ends, he doesn't have to worry about possibly making Jimin uncomfortable or screwing up all his social relationships.

Everything is a lot easier if Jimin is just Yoongi's temporary statistics partner. That would make this a mere temporary crush on a cute boy and not a terrifying life altering revelation that maybe Yoongi wants to date boys too. Specifically Park Jimin.

And as Yoongi grows more distant he thinks Jimin does too; Jimin becomes more hesitant around Yoongi, and more focused on the project. The light casual touches of Yoongi's arm and the invitations to hang out outside the project all but disappear and Yoongi thinks that maybe this process is too easy. Maybe Jimin is just responding in turn to Yoongi's distancing or maybe he just doesn't care about _them_ as much as Yoongi does. The idea hurts Yoongi but he thinks it's a good pain. It's a pain that means that Yoongi had been blowing things out of proportion when he had been thinking about dates with Jimin, and it means that it will be easy for him to escape from a friendship that is more to Yoongi than he had ever bargained for.

After handing the project in they go back to how they were the prior semester, where they'll talk in seminar but not see each other out of it. Except that now there's texting but Yoongi isn't putting too much effort into sounding interested or messaging back at a reasonable time, or a reasonable hour for that matter. Jimin probably gets tired of always being the one to initiate conversation and he starts texting Yoongi less and less often about the small details in his day and Yoongi honestly misses the daily pings that still make his heart-rate go up and misses the tiny insights into Jimin's life.

Yoongi breaks his phone by dropping it into the bathtub while he's taking a relaxing bath after his second exam, and as easy as it was to let Jimin into his life Yoongi thinks that maybe life has made it even easier to let him out.

 


	2. Hani's Mysterious and Maybe Asshole Boyfriend

Yoongi can hear his mom and his sister voices coming in through the floor of his bedroom as he sits in his bed on his laptop. His mother's voice is condescending, and dripping with concern, “I just think it's time you settled down with a nice man, you're 23 years old and you've never had a boyfriend” his mother is saying.

Hani's voice is quieter, but still audible through Yoongi's floorboards, “I've just never met anyone.” Hani explains.

“I always thought you and Jackson were destined to be together.” Their mother's voice sounds almost disappointed, like she's pouting.

“Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen.” Hani says slowly.

Their mother's voice immediately takes on a more patronizing tone like she's explaining basic algebra to Hani for the thousandth time “Hani dear, why do you think he hangs around you all the time?” It was like their mother to be this direct, she had never been particularity tactful, or at all concerned with trying to be tactful in the first place.

“We've been friends for ten years!” Hani exclaims.

“Don't be obtuse Heeyeon,"  Their mother says curtly. She was one of the only people that called Hani by her birth name and she usually only did it when she was trying to be poignant. "if a man and woman are friends its only a matter of time before the man falls in love with the woman.”

Hani's voice had gotten quieter and Yoongi almost has to strain his ears to hear her, “Mom, Jackson is not in love with me.”

“If you keep up that attitude you're going to break that poor boys heart.”

“Mom.” Hani whines.

There's a short silence for a moment that Yoongi imagines means that their mother had huffed disapprovingly, “Well honey it doesn't have to be Jackson, you are like this with every man. There are countless lovely handsome men in this town and if you weren't so picky you'd probably have settled down by now.”

“Aw, ma-”

Yoongi closes his laptop sighing, this had to be the third time Hani and his mom had had this exact argument just in the last week. Their mother had recently gotten obsessed with getting him and Hani to settle down, get careers, and make her grandchildren. Yoongi thinks that this probably had less to do with their mother pushing them towards their own personal progress and more to do with the fact that "that damn Kathy", as their mother affectionately calls their neighbor Kathy, had recently posted pictures online of her own daughter's giant wedding celebration. Hani had been getting the brunt of their mother's overbearing insistence, for the past few weeks, due to having never had a boyfriend before.

And so Yoongi decides its time for him to be the dutiful caring brother and go down to break up the argument. He thinks that maybe Hani has been pestered enough for the last few weeks and he is willing to offer himself as a sacrifice, even just this once. Yoongi untangles himself from his blankets and drags himself out of his mountain of cushions to go to the discomfort of the kitchen. Yoongi thinks that he would be a lot less inconvenienced in general if he didn't care about his sister as much as he did. He idly wonders what excuse he should use for interrupting them and by the time he's made it down the stairs he's already considering forgetting about this whole dutiful brother thing and just pretending he'd come down for a glass of water.

Just as Yoongi is about to turn into the kitchen, Yoongi hears something he had not seen coming, even in the slightest. Hani: awkwardly-clumsy, good-natured, forever-single Hani says, “Mom. Okay. Yes, I have boyfriend.” His mother goes silent.

“You. You have a boyfriend?” Yoongi asks amused, by way of entrance. He steps into the kitchen and heads straight for the fridge like that had been his plan all along. Their mother is looking at Hani like she wants to say something but doesn't know what and Hani has her arms crossed over her chest defensively.

“Yes? is that so surprising?” Hani asks while barely looking at Yoongi; she makes brief eye contact with him and then looks away. Yoongi shrugs noncommittally and takes a pitcher of water from the fridge.

“If you have a boyfriend then why didn't you bring him up before?” Their mother says with her hands on her hips; she doesn't look very impressed.

“I didn't tell you because I wasn't sure if it was serious enough yet.” Hani is looking at the ground as she says this, but eventually lifts her head to look her mother in the eye. Yoongi scrunches up his face at Hani and mimes cutting his throat.

“Yoongi, can we not do this right now?” Hani says imploringly and she looks close to tears. Their mother turns to give him a stern look and Yoongi raises his hands in surrender, taking that as his cue to leave. So much for being the dutiful brother. 

. . .

Hani's boyfriend is supposed to come over for dinner tonight after weeks of insistence from Yoongi's mother. Yoongi can hear their mother frantically running about downstairs trying to get dinner finished and worrying about scattered pens around the house and dust that probably isn't there. He knows his mother is very excited about this dinner, in fact he is absolutely certain that his mom has already talked the ear off her friends about it. 

Yoongi is quite curious about Hani's boyfriend himself. Hani had really never had a boyfriend before and he supposes that in retrospect perhaps that was unusual, but it was also just something he had grown up with. Hani never really showed explicit interest in people beyond friendship, if a boy got too close she would normally duck her head and if a girl got too close she would giggle through it. It had really seemed that she would be single forever. But, now that she did have a boyfriend who she was interested in apparently, it was Yoongi's job to make sure that her boyfriend wasn't just some asshole.

Yoongi is staring at his computer screen lazily contemplating what kind of boy Hani was bringing home when he hears his mother calling for him from the kitchen. He sighs to himself as he closes his laptop as a testament to his indifference but truthfully he's feeling a bit antsy and apprehensive about going down there. What if Hani's boyfriend doesn't like him? What if Hani's boyfriend thought he was a bad brother to Hani? What could he do if Hani's boyfriend was an asshole? Would Hani trust his judgment? As he walks down the stairs Yoongi makes sure to keep his hands in his pockets so that he isn't tempted to fidget. His mother and Hani are already working busily in the kitchen and his mother looks only briefly up at Yoongi as he enters the room.

“Ah, Yoongi, good. I need you to fetch the flour for me from downstairs, and when you're done that you can help your sister cut the vegetables.” She says and Yoongi nods, mostly to himself because his mother isn't looking at him anymore, and he turns around and goes to get the flour.

Just as he's returning to the kitchen, flour in hand, the doorbell rings.

“Oh, that's probably Jimin, Yoongi sweetie, can you get the door?” his mother calls from the kitchen. Yoongi doesn't say anything back, he just walks into the kitchen to put the flour on the counter and walks back out to get the door. 

The doorbell rings again as he gets closer to the door. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” he says to no one.

Who he sees when he opens the door is exactly the last person he expected to see and he almost slams the door in the boys face out of shock. The bright red hair is new but there is no mistaking that stupidly brilliant smile and those dumb cheeks that make him look approximately ten years younger than he is. Yoongi's greeting dies in his throat as he stares at the boy standing in front of the door frame. As a final nail in the coffin as soon as the boy sees Yoongi his nervous smile dissolves completely.

“Yoongi?” Jimin exclaims.

 


	3. In Which Yoongi has to Deal

Yoongi wants to dissolve into the floorboards.

 _Not this Jimin;_  anyone but _this_ Jimin. This Jimin has a history with Yoongi; one that Yoongi thought he had left behind. This Jimin, Yoongi had bonded with over statistics class and coffee; this Jimin he had harbored a not-so-little crush on for more than a year; this Jimin he'd barely managed to stop himself from kissing into a wall; and this Jimin, for those exact reasons, Yoongi had expressly intended to never see again. But there was no mistaking that the Jimin on Yoongi's doorstep was none other than his Jimin. Evidently the world had a funny way of making sure Yoongi was consistently miserable. Here Jimin was standing on his porch, with bright red hair, looking very surprised and kind of lost, there to see Yoongi's sister whom he was dating.

Yoongi shoves his hands in his pockets, at a loss of what to say. “Jimin. I, uh, didn't expect to see you again.” he says only belatedly realizing that it was sort of rude for him to say that thing in particular. He clears his throat and steps out of the doorway, holding the door open so that Jimin can step inside, “Come on in, Hani is just in the kitchen helping with dinner.” 

“Thank you.” Jimin says stepping past Yoongi into the house, looking around the living room with moderate interest. “You have a lovely home.” Jimin says and Yoongi can't help but snort because that's such an awkward but polite thing to say, and he him and Jimin have never been awkward but polite, but it's just so Jimin to say something like that. Jimin responds with the smallest quirk of his lips and a spark of recognition in his eyes that reminds Yoongi of how they were before and suddenly the nostalgia and regret creeps up on Yoongi and his heart aches.

He's about to ask Jimin how he's been and what he's been doing but footsteps approach from the kitchen and he turns around to see Hani approaching them, “You know each other?” Hani asks, looking every bit as surprised as Yoongi felt.

“Yeah, we were in the same statistics class, we worked together on a project actually.” Jimin says but the way he says it and the way Hani responds makes Yoongi think something else is being communicated here. “I didn't know you two were siblings.” Jimin says meaningfully.

“Did you guys gossip about me or something?” Yoongi asks in a bemused tone, rolling a ball of lint between his fingers in his pocket as he speaks.

“Don't think you're that special.” Jimin says and he grins a grin that Yoongi doesn't return. Instead Yoongi wants to punch himself in the face. Their relationship had not ended well. They hadn't had a falling out; no fight; they hadn't gone out with a bang; they had just drifted apart. Of course that part had been entirely Yoongi's fault. The instant him and Jimin had handed in their projects Yoongi had made a very purposeful effort to phase Jimin out of his life so that he wouldn't have to deal with having a giant crush on a boy. It wasn't the most mature thing to do but Yoongi had figured that Jimin wouldn't really be hurt by the process if it had just felt like a natural dissolution to a strained relationship.

Yoongi liked girls and so Yoongi didn't have to date boys. It was as simple as math. Yoongi + girls = easy and expected; Yoongi + boys = trouble and complications. So he had made a pact with himself to never date a boy and for the most part it was really easy to stick to that pact. Straight people managed to stick to one gender and therefore he could too. It's just a fact of life that you don't end up dating everyone that you're interested in. It wasn't a big deal. _The pact_ wasn't a big deal. No one except Yoongi's best friend Hoseok knew that Yoongi liked boys and Yoongi liked to keep it that way. It was a great system, and Yoongi never had to deal with it.

Until Park Jimin. Park Jimin had threatened his pact and it was scary how easily he did it.

Jimin had somehow managed to push all of Yoongi's buttons in ways that would leave Yoongi breathless and wanting. Jimin had a sweetness and a genuineness to him that Yoongi almost coveted, but he also had a sharp tongue and a quick wit and a wavelength that synced up well with Yoongi's sense of humour. Jimin also had soft hands, soft smiles, and deft fingers that would card through Yoongi's hair just when he was too sleepy and content to pretend that he didn't like it. When Jimin was around, Yoongi would feel so gooey and affectionate in a way that was too overwhelming for him to deal with. It's for this reason that Yoongi had severed all ties with Jimin the second their project was over, thinking he could avoid the issue if he let his relationship with Jimin die. When Yoongi got a new phone, his and Jimin's conversations were already so skeletal that he didn't even bother telling Jimin his new number.

Yoongi had thought that had all worked out relatively well, he figures Jimin didn't need to know that he was being crushed on by the likes of him and Jimin probably thought they had just drifted apart. Even though Yoongi missed having the little ball of sunshine that was Jimin around he had considered it a worthy sacrifice to not have to deal with all the feelings that came with it. Except, apparently that plan hadn't worked and Jimin was right there in front of him, looking like he was made of sunlight, and Yoongi wants to evaporate.

Jimin was there to see Hani; Jimin was dating Hani. The boy Yoongi had dropped from his life because of a crush was back and dating his sister. Yoongi thinks it almost has a poetic irony to it. He is watching Jimin and Hani chatting away like old friends and something about it looks _off_ ; like two separate spheres of Yoongi's universe are interacting. He thinks Hani looks the same as always; human; dynamic; a constant in Yoongi's life, but Yoongi thinks that Jimin almost looks like a memory, familiar; distant; abstract. But a memory should not be in his living room talking to his sister, acting like he was made of the same flesh and blood he's always been. A memory should not look so real; so present; so human. A memory should not be doing normal human things while Yoongi gapes at them like an idiot who thinks living people can be reduced to memories.

Yoongi mentally takes a deep breath. This wasn't about him anymore, this was about Hani's first boyfriend who she had felt comfortable enough with to bring home and Yoongi had to be happy for her.

 _Pull yourself together Yoongi_ , he tells himself. _This is Hani's boyfriend, not your history._

Yoongi gives Jimin one last social smile and pats him and Hani's backs, and goes to the kitchen to help his mom finish the dinner. He usually wasn't allowed to go near the kitchen while dinner was being made but he figures that since Hani is occupied he can still be of some help, even if its just cutting vegetables. The first thing his mom says to him upon entering the kitchen is “No, no, no.” She calls out of the kitchen “Heeyeon, sweetie, can you come help me with dinner?” Yoongi stops in his tracks. “Yoongi dear, go keep Jimin company.”

Yoongi finds his eyebrows raising in surprise and his mother gives him a stern look, “Honey it's tradition to have the woman cook for her date, otherwise how would he know that he wants to marry her.”

Hani comes in through the door, “Actually it's just because you are really terrible at cooking.” she says taking her place beside her mother and resuming cutting the vegetables before her.

“I'm great at cooking.” Yoongi says defensively and Hani sticks her tongue out at him. Yoongi is about to argue that he can simply do little tasks and things so that Hani and Jimin can get comfortable when Jimin himself comes in through the door.

“I can help with cooking if you want” Jimin says and to Yoongi that sounds like a cute idea with the added benefit of him not having to make awkward conversation with his old statistics partner, but the look Yoongi's mother gives Jimin is so absolutely affronted and scandalized that Yoongi takes it upon himself to get Jimin out of there.

“Come on, dummy.” Yoongi says pushing on Jimin's shoulder as he exits the kitchen and he hears Jimin's soft footsteps pad after him. In retrospect it could be a good thing that Jimin is dating Hani, and in fact this could be the ideal scenerio where Yoongi gets to start over with Jimin; get over his crush and still have the sunshine boy around. Besides, if Hani is dating Jimin then Yoongi is already pretty much guaranteed that Hani's boyfriend is not in fact an asshole and its comforting to know that Hani has good taste in men, even if it's eerily similar to Yoongi's taste in men. But it shouldn't be too hard to stop thinking about Jimin as a crush when Jimin is literally dating his sister. All things considered, Yoongi thinks Jimin is probably one of the best people that Hani could end up dating.

“So,” Yoongi says letting himself fall comfortably on the couch and he watches as Jimin awkwardly sits down on one of the armchairs. “I didn't know you knew Hani, how did that happen?”

“We, uh met on the bus when I was going to class and she was going to work.” Jimin says, he's sitting so awkwardly and that pulls on Yoongi's heartstrings in a way he doesn't want to admit to. Can't admit to.

“You don't have to look so uncomfortable, I mean, we're friends right?” Yoongi grins. They most certainly were not friends. He's pretty sure Jimin knows he's lying but he's happy to play the blissfully ignorant role in order to get past this phase between them. Yoongi thinks its better to ignore the problem than say something like 'hey, s _orry I purposefully phased you out of my life, but now that you're in it again there's no reason to make this uncomfortable.'_

Jimin either doesn't know that Yoongi is lying or he seems to be on the same page because he smiles back at Yoongi in a brilliant but probably fake way and says “Yeah, we're friends.”

“It's kinda weird that you're dating my sister now.” Yoongi says trying to make conversation but doing a terrible job at it.

“Yeah, that just kinda happened.” Jimin says rubbing that back of his neck. “I didn't know you two were siblings.” He says eventually, then he continues, “I mean you guys have different surnames.”

“Oh, yeah.” Yoongi doesn't really know if he should tell Jimin that Hani was adopted into the family when she was six because that seems sort of personal so he just doesn't. He tries to start up a different conversation instead. “That bright red hair is new.” he says.

“Yeah, I wanted to try something different, I thought that red hair would be cool.”

“It is cool, it looks good on you.” Yoongi tells him, -s _o good,_ his brain helpfully supplies.

“Thanks.” Jimin says giving Yoongi a small smile that just serves as a reminder of how they used to be, and Yoongi already kind of wants to kiss him, and that was just very bad news. They sit in uncomfortable silence for a while; more than once Yoongi is tempted to just ditch Jimin and barricade himself in his room. He'd never been good at entertaining guests in the first place. He was probably worse at this than he would have been at cooking and he feels like he's going to scare Jimin off just by being super lame.

Eventually Jimin speaks again. “So, well, how are you, what have you been up to?”

Yoongi is glad that Jimin is still trying to make conversation even if Yoongi is the worst conversation partner. He scratches the back of his head, “This and that, I guess.” he says. “I got an apprenticeship as a mechanic so I'm not going to school anymore. Also I got that a new music making program recently so I can do more things on that than I could on my other program.” Yoongi tries to make eye contact when telling Jimin this, like it was no big deal, but Jimin had been one of the very few people that Yoongi had ever let listen to his music. Yoongi could hardly get himself to let anyone hear what he had created, but with Jimin everything had always been so easy.

“Oh! That's really really good, yeah that's awesome.” Jimin grins at him and Yoongi tries to smile back. “Can you do that thing now? The uh, you know with the importing sounds or something.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, I can.” Yoongi is surprised Jimin even remembers such a small detail that he'd probably only mentioned in passing, but then again Jimin had always been amazingly attentive. “So, how about you, then, what have you been doing?” Yoongi says.

“I'm still in school” Jimin says and Yoongi nods. “I've made some new friends, lost some old ones... I'm actually dating someone right now.” Yoongi snorts at that.

“Oh, really?” Yoongi grins at him, “Do you like her?”

“Meh.” Jimin says, and then he smiles at Yoongi.

Yoongi scoffs, affronted, “What the hell man, I'll kill you. My sister is at least a-” Yoongi makes an thumbs up and smiles an intentionally fake smile.

Jimin laughs, “I still can't believe you two are siblings, its just that Hani is so nice and pretty and you're so...” he makes a thumbs down symbol and frowns.

“You are really pushing your luck kid.” Yoongi says seriously and Jimin laughs again, apparently delighted. “Really, it's good to see you again Jimin.” Yoongi tells Jimin as honestly as he can muster and Jimin's smiles falters for a bit, even just for half a second.

“It's good to see you too Yoongi.” Jimin says and the genuineness that Yoongi hears in that makes his heart skip a beat.

“But if you hurt my sister I will kill you.” Yoongi says, forever the dutiful brother but he's smiling, it should be easy to fall into a pattern like this. Jimin makes a mock scared face at him. “You don't believe me?” Yoongi asks and Jimin shrugs. “I might just kill you right now.” Yoongi mumbles.

They fall into silence again, but its more comfortable this time, its a silence in which Yoongi thinks he could forget the past and build a new one, where Jimin and him are really just old friends that fell apart but the strings are still there to rebuild the friendship. A silence where Yoongi is content to just exist in, with the familiar company of Jimin again after it had been so long.

Eventually they get called to dinner and Jimin sits beside Hani with Yoongi across from them and their mother at the head of the table. The whole dinner Yoongi feels like the fourth wheel with his mother asking Jimin all sorts of questions and Hani chastising her for prying too much and Yoongi only occasionally getting a snarky comment in. Their mother makes it no secret that she's questioning Jimin to find out whether he's marriage material; asking questions like what he's studying in school, what his grade average is, what he plans to do with his future. Yoongi feels kinda bad for him but he mostly uses his voice to poke fun at Jimin for it.

“Mom we've been dating for like two months its not like we're engaged.” Hani says mostly into her food.

“Engaged? After tonight I don't think Jimin's ever going to call you again.” Yoongi tells her.

“Both of you shush, if Jimin can't handle a few questions then maybe he isn't right for you in the first place sweetie.” She gives Hani one of her stern looks and then smiles back at Jimin. “So how did you two get together?”

Jimin mouth if full when she asks that so the room goes quiet for a minute while Jimin chews his food while everyone stares at him and he looks awkwardly between his plate and the three of them. He swallows. “We sat together on the bus so often that one day I just asked her out...”

“Ah I like that, a real man always swallows his pride and asks out the girl of his dreams.” Their mother says approvingly.

“More like the girl of his nightmares.” Yoongi says and his mother kicks him under the table.

The rest of the dinner goes off with hardly a hitch, Jimin being the epitome of politeness and answering all their mother's questions promptly and graciously. By the end of the dinner Yoongi can tell his mother is absolutely charmed by Jimin, already telling Yoongi that he should be more like Jimin. This makes Hani laugh and Jimin smile smugly at Yoongi with his mouth still full. It throws Yoongi for a loop how Jimin always manages to have the cutest reactions to things, he should really have gotten over Jimin by the end of the dinner but somehow he still hasn't managed to kick that boy to the curb.

When dinner is over Yoongi's mom sends him to the kitchen to do the dishes and walks Hani and Jimin to the door to say goodbye to Jimin. Yoongi leaves to give the three of them some space and allow himself some time to mull the evening over in his mind. He can still hear the faint voices of the three of them talking in the living room the entire time that he's in the kitchen. When all the dishes are done Yoongi finds himself moving into the living room, leaning against one of the couches in the background, more like an observer than anything else.

“Come visit us again soon.” His mother is saying as Jimin puts his hand on the door handle.

“Of course I will, you have a lovely family.” Jimin says all smiles and charms making his mother swoon and Yoongi wishes he weren't as weak to it as his mother evidently is. Jimin says quiet personal goodbyes to Hani and then her mother, and just when Yoongi thinks he's finally actually going to open the door and leave Jimin calls out to Yoongi directly.

“It was good seeing you again Yoongi.” Jimin says and Yoongi's heart gets caught up in his throat like he's a damn teenager who had just been asked to prom. He manages to nod politely at that but in his head he's screaming at himself to get a damn grip.

“You treat my sister well, alright?” Yoongi says because he's a good supportive younger brother god damn it.

“Yeah of course” Jimin grins as he puts his arm around Hani and kisses the top of her head. To Yoongi it looks really weird and wrong to see Jimin and Hani like that, but Yoongi won't let that stop him from being supportive of the relationship. It looks cute.

“I'll see you again soon” Jimin says to Hani before finally heading out the door, shutting it quietly behind him.

“What a lovely boy.” Their mother says fondly,Yoongi makes a gagging noise but his mother ignores him. “I think you did well finding him.” she tells Hani.

Hani looks at the ground shyly, “Thanks.” she says. Yoongi can't stop the small smile that grows on his face; Hani seemed to genuinely like Jimin and Yoongi couldn't help but be happy for her, he really is. It was too hard for him to say that to her though so he does what he always does when he wants to show support to the people he loves, he pats her on the back and then flees the room.

 


	4. In Which Jimin is Just To Much

Jimin is too bright, too pure. One might think that after so much exposure to Jimin, Yoongi's not-so-little crush would at least wear off a bit but Yoongi had long ago learned that the universe hates him. Not much to Yoongi's surprise, the exact opposite happens. In fact whenever Jimin and Hani do something even vaguely affectionate he has to concentrate very hard on not averting his gaze and every time he has to remind himself to breathe. He knows that's so damn dramatic and stupid of him but for some reason he can't shake his stupid feelings.

Over the next few weeks Jimin comes over more and more often, sometimes coming in with Hani after they hung out somewhere and sometimes showing up out of the blue on the front porch. It becomes more commonplace for Yoongi to see Jimin randomly around the household when he goes downstairs for snacks, goes out for work, or hangs out in the living room. More than once has Yoongi been reading in the living room while his mother and sister are cooking dinner when a sudden weight falls beside him and he looks over to see Jimin pulling out his homework. It's nice having Jimin around. He makes the whole house seem just a little bit brighter. Yoongi finds himself going downstairs more often just to see him.

It's one of those days where Yoongi's room starts to feel too small and too isolated and he knows Hani and Jimin are downstairs watching TV that it gradually becomes too easy for Yoongi to go join them. This time when he does he is surprised to see his mother there with them, sitting in the armchair, reading. The second thing that surprises him is that Jimin and Hani are cuddling; Hani's head on Jimin's lap with Jimin's hand carding through her hair. He decides for his own sake to ignore it, except that they are taking up the entire couch and there is nowhere for him to sit.

“Gross guys. Hani move over.” Yoongi says coming to stand disapprovingly in front of the couch. Jimin jumps and his hands stutter to a halt on Hani's head; Yoongi definitely was not staring at Jimin's hand.

“Yoongi!” Jimin says like he's been caught doing something illegal.

“Yes, that's me” Yoongi replies automatically, and he looks poignantly at Hani who narrows her eyes at Yoongi and groans, moving to get up and allowing Yoongi to sit himself down beside her. For some reason this movement seems to prompt Jimin to retract his arm from around Hani fast as lightning. Yoongi side eyes Jimin for a bit, watching him clasp his hands together and put them in his lap like he's praying for forgiveness for touching his sister ever.

“Dude, you're allowed to cuddle with my sister I'm not going to smite you for doing what normal couples do.” Yoongi says eventually and Jimin turns to him only for a second before averting his eyes to the floor. Yoongi sighs, “I swear you two are the most awkward couple ever.”

“Would you rather we made out in front of you, because that can be arranged.” Hani says bemused without even bothering to look at Yoongi.

Yoongi recoils at the thought of that “Gross, no.”

“Didn't think so, now shut up we're trying to watch this.” Hani says putting her head on Jimin's shoulder.

Their mother visibly bristles, “You know I've never even seen you kiss.” She posits and when Yoongi looks over at Hani and Jimin he sees a very similar looks of horror on their faces.

“No offense mom, but I don't really feel comfortable kissing Jimin in front of you guys.” Hani says slowly, giving Yoongi a brief side glance.

“Oh come on, just for one picture that I can post on Facebook for my friends to see. That damn Kathy just posted pictures from her daughter's honeymoon and I just need to let her know that she's not the only one with successful and in love children.”

“Moooomm,” Hani groans and her mom gives her a pained look.

Jimin looks so absolutely uncomfortable and Yoongi can't help but snicker. His mother had never been a very tactful lady and Hani and Jimin had always been kinda awkward when it came to public displays of affection so the whole situation just seemed so ridiculous to him. Everyone in the room looks at him and he waves his hands in front of his face “I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” he tells them.

His mother looks back to Hani, pout returning in the blink of an eye, “Please, sweetie? You know how annoying Kathy has been lately, it would be so nice for me to have just this one thing? It would mean so much to me.” Yoongi has to bite his lip to stop himself from grinning. He looks over to see Jimin looking at him like he's pleading for help and Yoongi gives him a playful thumbs up sign. Jimin looks away quickly.

“Should we do it?” Jimin asks Hani tentatively

“I mean, I guess.” Hani says and Yoongi momentarily freezes as it dawns on him that he's actually about to watch Hani and Jimin kiss. Reasonably it could be good for him to see that to further push the reality that is their relationship into his brain but it was also about the last thing on earth that Yoongi wants to see. It is not like he has convinced himself that they do not kiss, he is just very thankful that it is something he has not seen.

His mother, on the other hand, jumps up in happiness and pulls her phone out of her pocket. “Okay, just give me a second.” Their mother says flipping to the camera app on her phone before pointing the camera at Hani and Jimin. Yoongi moves to the far armrest of the couch so that he isn't in the same frame. “Ready when you are.” Their mother says gleefully smiling at her phone.

Jimin and Hani lean in towards each other hesitantly and like a trainwreck Yoongi knows he doesn't want to see it but can't make himself turn away. The kiss itself is awkward as hell. Jimin's eyes are squeezed a little too tight and their faces look more like they were pressed together by a supernatural forces rather than they were a couple kissing. Yoongi would be inwardly cringing for them if he weren't so busy concentrating on the fact that Jimin and his sister were literally kissing right now in front of him.

After about two seconds of pausing like that Jimin and Hani pull apart abruptly and smile at each other awkwardly before turning to look at Hani's mother. When Yoongi turns to look at her he finds her staring disappointed at her camera.

“What was that your first kiss?” Yoongi teases and Hani looks at him and shrugs.

“You try kissing your boyfriend so your mom can take a picture, its a lot worse than it sounds.”

. . . 

It's an average Sunday for Yoongi, chilling out in a tank top and boxers, working on his music. He's not usually bothered by anyone at this time so he's surprised when he hears a knock at the door. He rubs the back of his neck as he pads to the door, unsure of who to expect to see when he opens the door. It definitely was not Jimin who he expected to see but it is Jimin that he sees there, standing in front of him, looking small and unsure. He notices Jimin's backpack is slung over his shoulder. Yoongi finds himself suddenly feeling self-conscious of his messy slept-in bed head and his boxers. “Uh, Jimin.” He says in surprise.

Jimin looks briefly down at Yoongi's scandalous choice of clothing before looking up and coughing into his hand. “Afternoon Yoongi, I'm, uh, sorry if I caught you at a bad time.”

“Hm? No I was just working on my music, what's up?”

“Hani isn't here and I thought that maybe I could hang out with you,” Jimin says and Yoongi feels his eyebrows raise of their own accord, “at least until Hani gets home I guess.” Jimin finishes nervously. 

Yoongi's brain is short circuiting “Uh, yeah, sure.” he says. Of course him and Jimin could hang out together, they hang out all the time downstairs and they used to be together alone all the time to work on their statistics project. Yoongi moves away from the door frame to let Jimin slip in after him. 

“So you're working on music?” Jimin asks conversationally, and Yoongi closes the door behind him. 

“Uh, yeah” Yoongi replies as he sits at his desk and turns his chair to face away from it, he watches Jimin sit down on his bed. Yoongi realizes he doesn't have the slightest idea how he's supposed to entertain Jimin; all he can remember is that back when they had the project to do together they could only find endless things to do that all were not the project.

“So do you know where Hani is?” Yoongi asks curiously.

“I think she's probably at work or hanging out with her friends.”

“Oh yeah she has other friends, I forgot about them.”

Jimin laughs, “Yeah, she has a lot of friends, too many, I'm meeting new ones every week.”

“So what do you want to do while we're waiting for her?” Yoongi asks.

Jimin shrugs, “I don't know, I didn't think much farther than this point.” He grins, Yoongi's heart stops. “If you want you can just continue what you're doing and I'll just do some homework.”

Yoongi frowns, “If you were just gonna do homework than what was the point of coming in here?”

“I just like your company.” Jimin says simply and Yoongi thinks that if he heart keeps stopping like this he's going to have to go to the hospital. And then maybe the mental hospital.

“Oh, okay.” He says at a loss of what to say.

Jimin sets up a little homework station, sitting cross-legged at the end of Yoongi's bed, he looks so cute sitting in Yoongi's room like that that Yoongi thinks he's going to die. He doesn't. But it feels rude for him to just sit at his desk facing away from Jimin when Jimin is sitting his room behind him.

Yoongi unplugs his laptop and sets up camp in his bed, leaning against the headboard, laptop on his thighs, headphones on his head. He's aware of Jimin watching him as he does this but he takes special care to look nonchalant about it and purposefully not look at Jimin the entire time. Eventually he feels the bed shift and looks over to Jimin who scoots over to sit beside him, purposefully not looking at Yoongi as he does this. Yoongi smiles and Jimin turns to smirk at him.

And that's exactly how they sit for who knows how long, not speaking, just doing their separate activities, enjoying the quiet company. Eventually Jimin closes his books, placing them on the floor beside him and then he puts his head on Yoongi's shoulder and watches him work on his music silently. Yoongi can't quite bring himself to push Jimin off, in fact he is very careful not to move too much to make sure Jimin stays comfortable. He ends up unplugging his headphones and just letting Jimin hear what he's been doing. It's just so easy to let Jimin back into his world. That's the problem with Jimin, everything just feels so natural with him.

At some point Yoongi is sure that Jimin has fallen asleep. He hears the front door open downstairs and Hani's voice carry up from below him.

“Jimin, are you awake?” Yoongi whispers softly to the immobile figure that is Jimin.

Jimin shifts slightly in response and mumbles something into Yoongi's shoulder.

“I didn't get that,” Yoongi laughs and Jimin hums in response, “I think Hani just got home.” he tells Jimin dutifully.

“Just five more minutes.” Jimin groans and Yoongi laughs. He closes his laptop definitively and pushes Jimin off his shoulder gently. He gets up and puts his laptop on his desk, plugging it back in. When he turns around he finds Jimin sitting up on his bed, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He has to repeat the words “Hani's boyfriend” to himself about 18 times after that.

 


	5. In Which Yoongi and Jimin are Friends

After that time in his room Jimin comes to hang out with Yoongi relatively often considering he should know when Hani isn't home, but Yoongi can't find it within himself to complain. Sometimes they go out and get coffee, or they stay in and play video games, board games, or just hang out and talk in Yoongi's room. It should alarm Yoongi how used he is to Jimin's presence, how Jimin is becoming an even bigger part of his life than he was when they were partners and that he doesn't feel any different about him now. It should worry him that he's this attached to one of Hani's boyfriends, knowing that if they break up he will have to be on her side and sever all ties with Jimin. It should worry him that he spends so much time with Hani's boyfriend and wants to kiss him approximately 100% of the time, but Yoongi can't bring himself to distance himself from the kid.

But then again its always Jimin who finds Yoongi; shows up at his door, grinning from ear to ear. Yoongi tries to respect the kid's boundaries but he's never the one to seek out Jimin's company in the first place. If Yoongi really wanted to he could end his and Jimin's unorthodox relationship, tell Jimin no for once and close his door. Yoongi could do exactly what he did before; gradually let Jimin fall out of his life. He could, but he doesn't want to.

Sometimes he'll dream about Jimin. Most of the time its just him, Jimin and Hani hanging out together like they do in real life. But sometimes it just him and Jimin, sharing coffee, words and kisses. It's always got a surreal quality to it. Jimin tastes like candy in his dreams, moves in sync with Yoongi, laughter always at the tip of his tongue, laughter Yoongi can taste. But it doesn't last because eventually Yoongi wakes up and groans into his pillow annoyed with how ridiculous and pathetic those dreams make him feel. It keeps happening to him and every time when he wakes up Yoongi wants to throw up.

This morning it goes a little differently; there's a weight on Yoongi's legs. Yoongi is still hazy from sleep and halfway between dream and reality. To Yoongi everything that his mind processes just confuses him more (even more than when he's awake). Yoongi comes to the vague realization that someone is leering down at him from above him, someone with bright red hair. Yoongi blinks lazily as a face comes into focus, a face that is about ten inches away from his face. It's such a familiar and beautiful face, Yoongi smiles sluggishly. It's Jimin. Yoongi's eyes drift to land on Jimin's lips, so pretty, so kissable. His eyes flutter shut.

Jimin practically jumps off of Yoongi like he's on fire, kicking Yoongi in the process and managing to wake Yoongi up the rest of the way. Yoongi sits himself up and squints at Jimin, scratching the back of his head. He's still sleepy enough to not register the way Jimin is determinedly not looking at him, or be at all embarrassed that his immediate response to having Jimin be ten inches away was to close his eyes and wait for Jimin to kiss him.

“Why the hell did you wake me you twerp.” Yoongi yawns.

Jimin seems to recover a bit, he smiles shyly, “Hani wasn't here but you were asleep... It's one in the afternoon.”

“Meh, I have today off.” Yoongi says simply, he fluffs his pillow and lays back down on it looking at Jimin sideways.

“What! You can't go back to sleep!” Jimin exclaims tugging the pillow out from under Yoongi's head.

Yoongi sits up to scowl at Jimin, “Kid, you are gonna be the death of me.” he tells Jimin seriously.

. . .

It would have been nice had that been the only close encounter that Yoongi had had with Jimin but alas it had only been the first.

Yoongi is going to see his father for the first time about a year, his mother had divorced him over 15 years ago but that man still insisted on his yearly dinners with the family. To be fair to his father he did pay most of their household income in alimony but that does not mean Yoongi has to enjoy their time together, it just means he has to be relatively pleasant and polite until the dinner is over.

It also means he has to wear a suit. Yoongi didn't really mind wearing suits; they always make him feel dapper. The problem is that he is fundamentally a sloth and putting on a suit is just too much effort at once for something Yoongi does not even want to do. He always keeps the knot in his tie so that he would seldom have to go through the motions of actually tying it, but now that Yoongi is all dressed up he finds himself staring at the evidently very untied tie in his hands. He sighs and slings the tie around his neck to deal with later and exits his room.

He meets Jimin in the living room, already in his own full suit. Jimin is coming to the dinner this year; Yoongi's father had insisted on meeting the boy Hani had been dating for the last few months. Jimin is wearing a plain black suit, making his bright red hair stand out even more than usual. The sight takes Yoongi's breath away; Jimin looks so absolutely incredible and the way that he's smiling brilliantly at Yoongi isn't helping Yoongi remember to breathe.

“Nice tie.” Jimin laughs and Yoongi feels his face heat up.

“It's all the rage in America to do it this way.” Yoongi replies and Jimin's grin gets broader, Yoongi feels his own shy smile mirror Jimin's.

“Well this isn't America, is it?” Jimin says as he approaches Yoongi confidentially and takes his tie from he shoulders, “Here, at least I know how to tie a tie.” Without further prompt Jimin gets to work on Yoongi's tie. Jimin is very close, too close. Everywhere that Jimin touches tingles long after his fingers have moved on, Yoongi finds he has to concentrate on breathing and when Jimin leans closer in concentration Yoongi's breath catches in his throat. It's very hard to act casual when Jimin is this close to his face. Every part of Yoongi's body is screeching at him to kiss Jimin, and Yoongi's eyes flicker awkwardly around the room, looking for anything that isn't Jimin but he always finds his gaze landing back on Jimin's mouth.

_Get it together, Yoongi._

Thankfully Jimin doesn't seem to notice, and after a few minutes of Yoongi concentrating on keeping his breathing quiet Jimin finishes with the tie. “Ah! You're so handsome, handsome!” Jimin says tightening Yoongi's tie for him and then working on Yoongi's collar.

Yoongi softly pushes him off, “Dude, personal space.”

At least Jimin has the decency to look embarrassed at that.

. . .

Of course Jimin manages to charm the pants off of Yoongi's father so the dinner goes about as well as it could. Yoongi has to share a few facts about himself and justify his decision to drop out of university several times, and he knows that Hani hates being talked down to like his father often does to her. It's uncomfortable, but somehow everyone manages to power through it. Yoongi can tell that having Jimin there helps Hani deal with their father and even that makes him feel more relaxed, he can do this, he thinks.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's more fun than romantic tropes with arbitrary boundaries set up in the relationship? Nothing?? Yes I think so too.


	6. In Which Jimin Is Just The Worst

Because Hani is one of the brightest, friendliest and nicest people in the world, Yoongi had long ago accepted the fact that all his friends were eventually going to be Hani's friends. While at times that could be inconvenient, for the most part Yoongi didn't mind sharing. Also for some unknown reason - and to Yoongi's continuous surprise - a lot of Hani's friends considered themselves to be Yoongi's friends as well. Between the two of them they had an absurd amount of friends and it's reasons like these that meant sometimes Hani's and Yoongi's house would be overflowing in random mixes of people.

Yoongi is sitting on the living room floor in a circle that consists of about eight people including himself and there are four other people in the kitchen. He has no idea how this happened. He also has no idea why two of the guests, Jackson and Hyojin had felt compelled to bring alcohol, but somehow there is enough in the living room to get an army (no pun intended) drunk. Yoongi himself has his own bottle that he has been working on for over an hour now. He has never really been a heavy drinker and he's not exactly a lightweight and so Yoongi is not feeling particularly drunk.

Jimin, on the other hand, is drunk as shit, and drunk Jimin is a menace. He has been following Yoongi around; clinging to him in an absolutely literal sense, hand on his elbow, tugging at his sleeve, or even hugging him from behind and not letting go for extended amounts of time. It also is not just Yoongi who receives Jimin's persistent affections; Jimin has been just been overly affectionate and clingy in general. This is especially towards Hani and Yoongi, but also Yoongi's friend Hoseok who he has an incredible amount of chemistry with having only met him that night.

To Yoongi however, drunk Jimin is a hazard to his health. For instance the repeated close proximity makes Yoongi's heart want to beat out of his chest and Yoongi is pretty sure he needs to keep to keep it in his chest for living and stuff. But drunk Jimin is relentless. When they had been playing cards, just a few minutes ago, Jimin had spent half the game giggling into Yoongi's lap and now that the game is over Jimin is now playing with Yoongi's face by squishing his cheeks in his hands.

Yoongi pushes him off “Hey, why do you keep bothering me, you annoying kid.”

“Because I love you~” Jimin says giggling, putting his head on Yoongi's shoulder and looking up at him innocently.

“You and everybody else.” Yoongi says, calmly pushing Jimin's away by the head.

“I don't.” Hoseok says and Yoongi gives him a dirty look.

“Do you love me too?” Jimin asks, leaning into Yoongi's space, grinning stupidly. His breath smells like alcohol.

“Yeah, you're alright.” Yoongi replies shaking his head disapprovingly at the rest of the group and Jimin finally leans away pouting. Yoongi pats his back supportively. “No offense Hani but I think you need to put your boyfriend to bed.”

Hani snorts from all the way at the other end of the circle beside Hyojin and Jackson, “No way am I going to deal with that if I don't have to.”

Sehun sighs in annoyance, “Well, you guys, as much as I've loved watching Jimin irritating Yoongi all night, I'd really love to talk about something infinitely more interesting: me, for instance.” he says. Jimin groans, hiding his head in Yoongi's shoulder. Sehun narrows his eyes at him.

“Or we could talk about anything else.” Suggests Hyojin.

“You guys never want to talk about me” Sehun pouts, “It's like you don't recognize a treasure when it's right before your eyes.”

“You guys, that talking treasure looks suspiciously like a noodle.” Yoongi says. Sehun presses his lips together to hide the fact that he's smiling and he jerkily cocks his head to the side, insulted. He hits Hoseok who is beside Yoongi, “Pass it on.” he says. Yoongi turns to look at Hoseok with a daring look in his eye and Hoseok hits him anyway.

“What a violent noodle.” Taeyeon comments.

“I won't stand for this slander!” Sehun says.

“I think you're a treasure, Sehun.” Jimin says, “I love all you guys. I love everybody”

It's about that time that Baekhyun comes out of the kitchen and sits behind Taeyeon putting his arms around her waist, drunkenly attempting to kiss her. When Taeyeon turns her head and obliges, Yoongi takes that as his cue to leave.

. . .

Yoongi heads upstairs to brush his teeth and do his nightly rituals before heading to his room. He strips out of his clothes down to his boxers and throws on a tanktop, he then unplugs his laptop and brings it into bed with him. After staring blankly at the screen for a while and checking his social media Yoongi thinks he's tired enough to sleep. When he's about two seconds away from actually being asleep he hears a knock on his door. Since he was already by all rights asleep Yoongi figures he has no obligation to show that he's awake. But the person knocks again. And again.

The doorknob squeaks as it turns and the hinges of Yoogni's door creak. Yoongi peaks at the door through his eyelashes to see a small boy standing there with bright red hair. He shuts his eyes again.

Yoongi hears Jimin's quiet voice, “Yoongi?” he hears soft footsteps pad up to his bed and a hand comes out to gently touch his shoulder. “Yoongi.” Jimin whispers insistently. Yoongi groans and Jimin shakes him lightly, “Yooongii” he repeats dragging out the word.

Yoongi groans again irritably but turns his face upwards to squint at Jimin, “What.” he says groggily.

“Can I cuddle with you?” Jimin asks.

Yoongi squints even harder, “What? Go find Hani you weirdo.” Yoongi tells him.

“No, Hani is asleep with Hyojin.” Jimin pouts. Yoongi shuts his eyes annoyed and Jimin shakes him, “Yooongiii.”

Yoongi sighs haughtily but turns himself onto his side and lifts the blanket so that Jimin can get in. This isn't the first time that him and Jimin would be sleeping in the same bed, but it would be the first time they cuddled on one and that prospect is just a little odd. But Yoongi figures that this is just drunk Jimin being weird and clingy and it doesn't have to be weird if he doesn't make it weird. He definitely doesn't do it out of his own selfish desire to cuddle Jimin. Nope, definitely not and no one can prove otherwise.

Jimin enthusiastically clambers into the bed, the springs creak as he wiggles his way under the covers and presses himself into Yoongi's chest, tucking his head under Yoongi's chin. Yoongi lets himself inhale deeply once Jimin has settled, letting the arm that had been holding up the covers drape over Jimin's side and he positions himself so that he's more comfortable. His legs tangle with Jimin's and he feels the rough fabric of Jimin's jeans against his bare calves; the kid was wearing jeans to bed apparently. Idiot.

Once Yoongi is settled he lets out a long breath, Jimin feels so warm and small against him; so precious. The soft press of his body and the warmth of his breath playing across Yoongi's collar slowly lulls Yoongi into sleep. Yoongi thinks he should be more concerned about how nice it feels to be holding his sister's boyfriend, but he's sleepy and Yoongi doesn't feel very concerned about anything.

. . .

When Yoongi gradually regains consciousness he wakes up to find he's cradling someone close to his chest and he winces when he realizes who it is. Yoongi presses his nose against Jimin hair, lost in thought. He lets himself listen to Jimin breathe for a while. The sunlight streams in through the curtains, playing lightly across Jimin's red hair. Yoongi draws Jimin closer to his body, he wonders if Jimin can feel the way his heart stutters in his chest. Yoongi lets his mind drift into a sleepy haze, enjoying the warmth that radiated from Jimin's body.

He has no idea how long he lets himself lie there content, but eventually his quiet comfort is interrupted when he feels Jimin shift below him. Jimin moans pitifully and pushes weakly at Yoongi's chest making him scoot back just enough to look fondly at the hungover boy beside him. Jimin rolls onto his back and presses his palms into his eyes.

“Oh, my head.” he grieves, “Why is it so bright in here."

“That's just my personality.” Yoongi says.

Jimin removes his palms from his eyes and turns his head to look at Yoongi, squinting, “Yoongi?” he says, voice still rough from sleep; Yoongi finds himself smiling. “I thought you were Taehyung.”

“Do you want me to be Taehyung?” Yoongi asks curiously, he wonders if Jimin had made a mistake coming into his room, he may only have come to Yoongi because Yoongi had a bed.

“No.” Jimin says simply, still squinting at Yoongi. Yoongi moves to brush some hair off Jimin's forehead, smile growing when Jimin squints even more and recoils slightly. Yoongi's heart is going a mile a minute but Jimin doesn't need to know.

“You're so cute.” Yoongi tells Jimin making Jimin blink repeatedly, frowning.

“I must still be drunk.” Jimin says to himself and Yoongi laughs softly.

Jimin shifts slightly and winces, apparently he has a pretty bad hangover. “Do you want me to get you some water?” Yoongi asks him.

Jimin nods and winces again, so Yoongi forces himself to get up out of the warm comfort of his bed and face the day. As he shuffles out of the room Jimin calls back to him. “Yoongi.” he says and Yoongi turns around to see Jimin has propped himself up slightly in Yoongi's bed, his hair still flat and sticking up in some places, Yoongi can't help but think he looks adorable. “Why are you being super nice, it's weird.” Jimin says.

“Because I'm nice, idiot.” Yoongi retorts. “And 'cause I like you.” he adds.

Yoongi finds Hani in the kitchen, leaning back against the counters with a cup of coffee in her hand, her hair is all tangled and she looks like she had just come back from the dead.

“Rough night?” Yoongi asks opening the cupboard to take out a cup.

Hani grunts and says “My head is killing me, I don't know how this keeps happening.”

“Maybe you should stop drinking so much when things like these happen.” Yoongi teases half out of self-preservation because it pains him to see Hani hurting or uncomfortable.

“I had like two drinks.” Hani mopes.

Yoongi turns on the tap and lets the water run into his cup, “Maybe you should stop drinking altogether.” Yoongi says and Hani makes a whining noise.

“What's the fun in that.” She complains.

Yoongi shrugs and then turns around to lean against the sink counter, holding Jimin's cup in his hands. “You know your boyfriend gets really clingy when he's drunk.” Yoongi smirks, “maybe if you hadn't've passed out on him he wouldn't have come to me for cuddles last night.”

Hani squints at Yoongi, “Jimin came to you for cuddles last night?”

Yoongi laughs, “Yeah that kid is damn weird.”

“That's for sure,” Hani says into her cup before taking a sip of her coffee, “Did you cuddle him?”

Yoongi feels embarrassed suddenly; its not everyday you have to admit to your sister that you you cuddled a man. “Should I have not?” he asks instead of answering.

Hani shrugs, “No.” she says unperturbed, then she grins at Yoongi, “Did you snuggle him?”

Yoongi gives her the finger, and she continues creeping closer to him, “Did you snuggle-wuggle-buggle him? Did you hold his widdle body real close? Did you kiss his widdle head and read him bedtime stories?” Yoongi pushes himself off the counter and walks right out of the kitchen.

“Yoongi!” Hani calls after him, laughing. He turns back to look at her irritably.

“Seriously though, thank you for taking care of him. I do actually know what he's like when he gets drunk.” Hani tells him, the kind smile Hani gives him reminds him why he loves his sister so god damn much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jimin is 100% a guy that goes for cuddles when he is drunk and forgets about who it was by morning.  
> In this fic I like to imagine what that after Yoongi left the room Jimin immediately texted Tae like "I drunk-cuddled Yoongi??"


	7. Yoongi's Phone Number

Jimin has practically become part of the family, Yoongi is often surprised if he doesn't see Jimin at dinner, or just around the house in general. Jimin doesn't even make plans with Hani before he comes over anymore, he just shows up randomly and hangs out with whoever is around and often that person is Yoongi. It strikes Yoongi one day as he's sitting around lazily hanging out with Jimin that if Jimin just randomly stopped showing up at his house he would have no way to contact him.

“Jimin, hey can I see your phone for a second?”

Jimin looks up from the knickknacks he had just been playing with on Yoongi's desk. “What, why?”

“Come on, I'm not going to do anything weird, please?”

“No, why would I ever let you do that?” Jimin looks somewhat amused.

“Come on, please?” Yoongi insists unconvincingly.

The smile on Jimin's face grows, “No!!!!” Jimin has a giant grin on his face, looking at Yoongi like he's being ridiculous.

“I'm not going to go through your texts or internet history or anything, I promise. Now can I please see you phone?” Yoongi stretches out his hand.

“Why.” Jimin deadpans and in response Yoongi sticks out his bottom lip and looks at Jimin with wide eyes, pouting. Jimin looks bemused,“nuh uh.” he enunciates still looking at Yoongi like he's crazy. Yoongi switches to a new approach where he tries to be cute in response, wiggling his fingers under his chin. Jimin looks unimpressed and unmoved, eyeing Yoongi suspiciously. Yoongi just keeps being cute.

“Oh my god.” Jimin says making his exasperation known, but he rolls Yoongi's desk chair up to him and he hands Yoongi his phone. Yoongi smiles as big as he can and Jimin narrows his eyes back. Yoongi turns on the phone to find Jimin's lock screen.

“It's locked.” Yoongi says.

“Yes.” Replies Jimin.

Yoongi makes the same pouting face he'd made earlier and Jimin rolls his eyes but takes his phone back and puts in his password. He hands Yoongi his phone back and Yoongi squeals, backing away from Jimin so that Jimin can't see what he's doing on his phone. He shouldn't be embarrassed that he's stealing Jimin's number but he is because he feels like he's crossing a threshold into actually re-solidifying their relationship as friends. It's intimidating, especially since he's not even sure that he should be friends with his sister's boyfriend.

“Are you seriously hiding what you're doing from me on my own phone.” Jimin says and Yoongi grins at him. It takes him a while to actually find Jimin's number, but he eventually does and attempts to memorize it long enough to put it in his phone once he's given Jimin his phone back.“Seriously what did you do?” Jimin asks Yoongi as Yoongi hands him back his phone. Yoongi shrugs and immediately takes out his own phone and plugs Jimin's number in. He smiles secretly at it.

. . .

He texts Jimin the next day.

 

**Yoongi:**

Hey, is this Jimin?

 

**Jimin:**

Yeah, who is this?

 

**Yoongi:**

:)

 

**Jimin:**

...

 

**Yoongi:**

Meet me at Lucy's Coffee House at 11am tm

. . .

 

To Yoongi's surprise Jimin had actually shown up to the meeting Yoongi had ominously invited him to. When Yoongi explained to him that he had been the one to text him on his new phone with his new number he had expected Jimin to show some kind of happiness but Jimin had not been smiling. In fact as soon as Yoongi mentioned his new number Jimin had promptly pulled out his own phone and started frowning at something. Jimin eventually speaks up,“Wait, when did you get your new phone?” Jimin is staring at something on his phone, sitting across the table from Yoongi, he had yet to touch his coffee.

“I don't know, a long time ago?” Yoongi replies, a little lost.

“Like seven months ago? Eight months ago? Nine?” Jimin prods.

“I don't know the exact details dude.”

“And you never thought to tell me your new number?”

“I don't know, I meant to but I guess it slipped my mind.” Yoongi lies smoothly.

“Okay, what was the last text you got from me?” Jimin presses.

“What?”

“Please Yoongi, this is important to me.”

“I don't know, I think you like wished me good luck on my exams or something.”

“Oh."

“What, 'oh'?”

“Just, oh... so you never got the text?”

“What text?”

“You'd know what I meant if you'd gotten it.”

“So, I didn't get the text?”

“Apparently not.”

There is a pause, “What was the text?” Yoongi asks.

Jimin looks embarrassed, “It's not important anymore.” Jimin says quietly.

“I mean, if you say so.” Not for the first time Yoongi feels bad for having dropped Jimin as a friend so thoughtlessly. “I'm sorry.” Yoongi says eventually.

“Sorry?” Jimin looks at him queerly, “For what?”

“For not telling you I had a new number, for not replying to you properly when you texted me after we handed in our project, for being a bad friend I guess. I'm sorry.”

“Oh.” Jimin looks down at his drink in his hands, “That's okay.”

Neither of them speak for a while, Yoongi wonders idly what texts Jimin sent him after he had gotten his new number. In retrospect it had been an asshole move to just not tell Jimin, he had only assumed that Jimin had been as invested in the relationship as Yoongi had tried to be, he never really thought to ask how Jimin had seen him when they were statistics partners. if Yoongi is honest with himself he thinks he had always known the possibility that Jimin could be hurt when Yoongi stopped replying to him seriously, started brushing him off more often, ignoring him, replying late. Yoongi had been too content to pretend that the friendship they had built up over the past several months had meant nothing. Yoongi had sort of known that finally giving Jimin a new number to contact him by would open up old wounds. He sits there, stewing in his regret, not really knowing what else to say.

“Thank you.” Jimin says, his voice is so quiet Yoongi barely hears it.

. . .

Yoongi might be imagining it but he thinks Jimin is avoiding him. It's not just that Jimin had just stopped coming to hang out with him in his room (which he had), but Jimin had actually started calling ahead of time to make sure Hani would be there when he arrived or otherwise making plans specifically so that Hani would be there. Yoongi had also noticed that whenever he enters a room that Jimin is in, it is guaranteed that Jimin will be out of that room in less than a minute. Yeah, Yoongi was pretty sure Jimin was avoiding him.

“You're avoiding me.” Yoongi says to Jimin one day after cornering him in the kitchen, making Jimin jump.

“I'm not avoiding you.” he says nervously.

“Yes you are.” Yoongi confirms.

Yoongi looks at the frazzled boy in front of him. He feels caught very off guard by how immediately evident it was that Jimin did not want to see him. Yoongi feels his heart thud in his chest as Jimin exhales slowly, “I'm not avoiding you; everything has just been weird lately.” Jimin says.

“Are you okay?” Yoongi asks concerned.

“Oh, uh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry Yoongi.” Jimin isn't looking at him.

“Sorry?” Yoongi asks.

“Yeah, for making it seem like I was avoiding you.” Jimin replies helpfully.

“Dude, you're going to have to help me out, did I do something wrong?” Yoongi prods.

“No I never said that, why would you think that?” Jimin says looking mostly at the floor.

“Well you're not really giving me much to go on here.” Yoongi tells him.

“I'm sorry, you really didn't do anything wrong. I've just been weird lately don't mind me.”

“Okay.” Yoongi says deciding to just accept what Jimin was saying, the conversation had only made him more confused and evidently Jimin didn't want to explain himself better so it wasn't any of Yoongi's business.

Yoongi turns back to go out of the kitchen again when Jimin calls back to him, “Yoongi.”

“Yeah?”

“I'm sorry.”

“Okay.” And with that Yoongi turns around and leaves. It's not his right to get caught up in relationship drama with Hani's boyfriend, especially when he had probably been the one to do all the wrong. He thinks he knows why Jimin is avoiding him and it's because Yoongi had been dumb and opened up old wounds that Jimin had been content to forget. Yoongi does exactly what he does best; he backs the hell off and gives Jimin some space.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely satisfied with the chapter but we now have some plot development!!


	8. In Which Shit Gets Real

Jimin hasn't come to see Yoongi for a while, but he has stopped leaving rooms if Yoongi dares to step inside. This doesn't, however, mean Jimin will talk to Yoongi or engage with him at all beyond polite conversation. It's almost lonely without Jimin; quieter perhaps. Yoongi is forced to realize what a secluded life he lived before Jimin came to bother him almost everyday. In some ways the quiet is comfortable and familiar, but in others it's depressing so Yoongi ends up calling up his friends way more often than he thinks he used to. He misses talking to Jimin; his presence would make Yoongi feel lighter. The days that go by without Jimin make Yoongi wonder how he had ever let Jimin go as a friend in the first place, and how he would do it again if Hani and Jimin ever broke up.

It's only about a week later when Yoongi hears the knock on his bedroom door and opens it up to find Jimin standing there. “Hey.” Jimin says and Yoongi wordlessly moves aside to let Jimin come in. Yoongi thinks that Jimin isn't going to say anything; he probably has nothing to tell Yoongi beyond what had already been said. But Yoongi thinks that's just as well. As far as he's concerned he understands the issue well enough; he had hurt Jimin in some way and Jimin just needed space. Beyond what Jimin had told Yoongi, he figures he has no right to know.

But now Jimin was finally back and he seemed, for some reason, to be willing to continue his friendship with Yoongi, and Yoongi was genuinely flattered. It was nice just to have Jimin be there with him. Yoongi didn't need an explanation. So instead of causing drama or making Jimin uncomfortable he decides to let the relationship simply continue as it was. “Do you wanna play Mario Kart?” he asks, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

For some reason Jimin turns to Yoongi and a smile grows on his face and Yoongi can't help but smile back. “Only if I get to play as Roselina.” Jimin responds, eyes crinkled. Yoongi had really missed that smile.

He hadn't missed that attitude. “Do you know how hard I worked to unlock- No, you just don't get it. You're a rascal, you know that kid?” Yoongi tells him. Jimin smiles wider.

. . .

For the most part, things go back to how they used to be after that; most of the time Yoongi thinks he had imagined Jimin avoiding him. But there are other times where Yoongi thinks there is something different about them. Jimin gets shyer when Yoongi gets too close, gets smilier if Yoongi says something nice, and he's definitely more handsy than he used to be. To Yoongi it seems almost as if Jimin is more comfortable around Yoongi, less careful. Even Hani acts differently around them; less guarded. He, Jimin, and Hani are sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room in a circle playing monopoly with various other board games scattered randomly around them. These are the moments that Yoongi really enjoys; Jimin and Hani are probably two of Yoongi's favourite people in the world.

Ever since they had adopted Hani, she had been one of the first people Yoongi went to for advice. The second Yoongi had met her, when he was five and she was six, he had immediately already considered her to be part of the family. She just fit into his life so easily, been such an amazing person to have around.

Yoongi really loves his sister, he doesn't know if Hani knows it, but he really does love her. Hani is one of the sweetest people Yoongi knows. She was almost always the bigger person in fights and was an expert at laughing at herself and laughing in general. She was also one of the nicest and politest people that Yoongi knew and she somehow always managed to brighten up a room. Hani was a lot of good things; smart, kind, outgoing, and Yoongi knew he was lucky to have her as a sister. Her presence was always a comfort to him and sometimes Yoongi would find himself unconsciously drifting to rooms just because Hani was there.

Yoongi has all his little ways of communicating to Hani that his love and support for her was unconditional, but he had never managed to tell her this straight, and so he could never really be sure that Hani had gotten the message. He got the feeling that Hani somehow thought her stay here was conditional on the fact that she stay amiable.

This was one of the reasons Yoongi was glad that Hani had Jimin. Yoongi thinks her and Jimin are a lot alike; they were both so unconditionally kind and thoughtful, brilliant and beautiful. They really made an amazing pair, seeing them interacting or playing around together was enough to make Yoongi's heart burst with love. Yoongi may have that not-so-little meaningless crush on Jimin that he'd been struggling with but he's genuinely glad that Hani and Jimin had found each other.

Yoongi thinks that even their arguments are cute. Hani and Jimin are arguing about something irrelevant, tugging the rule book between them, trying to find whatever it is in their that is supposed to resolve this argument. The funny thing about them is that neither of them has started shouting, they both are frustrated but neither of them raises their voices at each other, opting instead for trying to reason it out, albeit a bit passive aggressively. _It's cute_ , Yoongi thinks, _they're cute_.

“You guys are so cute together.” He tells them seriously and the looks they give him afterwards remind him why he hardly ever voices the things he thinks. Hani is looking at him like he's crazy and Jimin looks completely caught off guard. Yoongi's throat goes dry, “What, it's true.” he defends himself.

Hani actually starts laughing, “Bro,” she says, “you are so clueless.”

Yoongi doesn't know exactly how he's supposed to react to that. “How am I clueless?” he pouts.

“You're not that clueless.” Jimin consoles him, Yoongi just redirects his bewildered expression to Jimin.

“Forget about it, dummy.” Hani tell him, Yoongi pouts some more, “We have more important things to worry about than mine and Jimin's very legit relationship, like this game.”

Yoongi does not have the slightest clue what that's supposed to mean.

. . .

Yoongi can't be too sure about it but he thinks that Hani has started dropping him hints about something in the most obscure way possible. The most recent example of this was when she brought her friend Hyojin home and had spelt out very intricately to Yoongi that she's going to be hanging out with Hyojin in her room and if Jimin comes over can Yoongi please entertain him in the same way. Yoongi tries very hard not to read “I'm about to go make out with my friend upstairs, please make out with my boyfriend” from that but Hani makes it pretty hard to read it any other way.

 _Does she just want me and Jimin to be better friends?_ Yoongi wonders distantly as he watches Hani disappear up the stairs with a bewildered expression on his face. _We're already really good friends shouldn't she want us to be less good friends?_

Things get even more bizarre when Jimin is actually around because then Hani starts acting even stranger. She frequently leaves rooms when Yoongi and Jimin are otherwise alone with what are clearly flimsy excuses and makes hearts with her hands whenever she sees the two of them together. Yoongi wonders if this is her passive aggressive way of telling Yoongi that he shouldn't be friends with her boyfriend. He's also half convinced that he's over-thinking the whole think and Hani is just being quirky and well, Hani.

Then there's that one thing that happens when they were all having dinner, where Yoongi isn't being particularly careful as he's messily eating the vegetables that were cut just a little bit to big for his mouth so forgive him if he gets a little bit of the sauce on his face. He shouldn't be held responsible when Jimin reaches across the table to thumb at the corner of his bottom lip, wiping away the sauce that was apparently there, and Yoongi freezes like he's been electrocuted. Normally he would just brush it off as him overreacting because of one of his stupid crush things but his eyes dart over to Hani and she winks at him. His mother complains that she never sees Jimin doing cute things like that to his girlfriend and Yoongi would swear that Jimin blushes except that he had already decided to never trust his brain's interpretation of things again.

But the thing that makes Yoongi's world come to a screeching halt is when Jimin kisses him.

Hani isn't home so Jimin and Yoongi are in Yoongi's room, sitting side by side on Yoongi's bed, watching a movie on Yoongi's laptop. Jimin has his head on Yoongi's shoulder but Yoongi had long ago figured out that that meant the equivalent of nothing. There's a bag of chips between the two of them, which Jimin or Yoongi will occasionally reach into and pull out chips and sometimes their hands will touch but Yoongi had long been accustomed to little things like hand brushing. Yoongi thinks he's finally starting to get over Jimin and starting to see him as Hani's awkward-ass boyfriend. The movie is some romantic nonsense but it delights Yoongi to see the way Jimin's face gets red every time Yoongi says something about it.

“Is that the kind of relationship you want?” Yoongi teases Jimin when the male character kisses the female character in the pouring rain. In Yoongi's eyes its an especially cheesy scene; he can't imagine Jimin doing that to Hani but it gives him joy to tease him about it.

Jimin takes a second to respond. “I think its more about the person than it is about moments like those.” Jimin says softly and Yoongi looks down he sees Jimin is looking gently up at him. Yoongi smiles down at Jimin; he's glad that Hani has someone who loves her as much as Jimin clearly does.

“Yeah, I'm pretty great.” Yoongi says playfully, knowing full well that Jimin was talking about Hani and not himself. Jimin is still looking at him when Yoongi glances back down at him a moment later. Yoongi nudges him softly, smiling affectionately and then turns back to his screen. He feels Jimin shift on his shoulder.

They're at a very important plot point of the movie, the main female character has to choose between her old boyfriend that she had been with for over five years and the main male character who it had been revealed had been her soul mate the entire time. If you ask Yoongi both the love interests are assholes in their own way, the old boyfriend treats the main character like she's obliged to be with him but the soul-mate love interest is constantly guilting her for not breaking up with him.

“God they're both awful, when is it going to be revealed that Minji has been dating her best friend this entire time.” Yoongi whispers conspiringly into Jimin's forehead.

He feels Jimin shift, "You mean the girl, uh, Jieun?" he asks.

"Was that her name? I always called her Hyojin in my head because they look alike." Yoongi says casually.

Jimin turns his head to look at Yoongi, a cautious smile growing slowly on his face, “Hyojin, huh?" Jimin repeats thoughtfully, "I'm not sure they look that alike."

"Maybe you're not looking hard enough." Yoongi replies squinting at the growing smile on Jimin's face.

Jimin bites his lip and Yoongi does his best not to stare stupidly at it, "Was ' _Minji'_ only keeping those boys around to cover up her sexuality from her mom?” Jimin asks.

Yoongi almost says something about the weird emphasis on Minji's name but decides to let it slide. “Among others but yes, of course.” Yoongi confirms.

"Do you think her boyfriend knows?" Jimin asks with a curious look in his eyes.

"It sure would be better if he did." Yoongi replies carefully, wondering if Jimin was hinting at something.

Jimin's smile grows, "I think he does." he says and Yoongi thinks that's a really weird thing to say considering the entire contents of the movie wouldn't have made sense if the boyfriend had known but maybe Jimin is just idealistic and Yoongi shouldn't rain on his parade.

"Well how couldn't he?" Yoongi says to play along, "It was really obvious, or at least it is to someone who is clever and can pick up on subtle hints." Jimin's smile grows ridiculously wide as Yoongi continues, “But!”, he exclaims, “we have to give Minji space to come out on her own time.”

The way Jimin is smiling at him is absolutely blinding, its one of those times that Yoongi's usually dormant crush comes back with a vengeance and Yoongi can literally feel his heart beating in his chest, making his chest ache and throat close up. Yoongi had been a little apprehensive about revealing the little bit of himself tied up with the queer community, the part of himself that saw girls liking girls and boys liking boys, and the part of himself that saw how he felt reflected in the subplots of TV and dramas but the way Jimin is looking at him makes him feel like he's done something right.

And in that moment Yoongi feels so close to Jimin, so comfortable around him, so safe that for the first time in years Yoongi feels like he can tell Jimin that he's bisexual and he won't be apprehended for it. For the first time since Yoongi had finally told his very best friend Hoseok about it, Yoongi actually wants to tell someone that personal little detail about himself. He's only known Jimin for a few months now and it should scare him that he already wants to tell Jimin, but for some reason he just feels compelled to tell him.

“Jimin, I...” he starts, and that's when Jimin kisses him and everything falls apart.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jimin you idiot!!  
> (In case I didn't make it obvious enough; Jimin thought that Yoongi was alluding to Hani when he was talking about Minji in the movie... Like he thought Yoongi was like 'yeah i do know that //Minji// is gay and fake dating you er i mean her //bf//')
> 
> Anyway I hope you like this chapter :)  
> ...And cliffhangers


	9. In Which Yoongi Finds out Why The FUck

At first it doesn't fully register with Yoongi that Jimin's lips are pressed against his own , he only feels the squish of something soft against his lips and sees the blurry haze of Jimin's face ridiculously close to his. As soon as he realizes what's happening he reels back so violently that he knocks his laptop onto Jimin and falls right off the bed.

“J-JIMIN WHAT THE FUCK.” He whisper-yells as he stutters over the words as he stands. Yoongi's mouth is moving faster than his brain, he had barely processed what had happened, but apparently Jimin had kissed him and that was definitely not warranted. From the looks of it Jimin hasn't moved at all. He's sitting frozen in place, still staring staring at the spot in the bed Yoongi had just been, his eyes are so wide it looks like they're about to fall out of his head and his mouth is slightly agape.

“I, uh, I thought...” Jimin starts to stammer looking everywhere but at Yoongi's face. Yoongi's brain is on a loop. Jimin had kissed Yoongi. Why. Yoongi is pretty certain by Jimin's reactions at this point that it hadn't been an accident and the guilt on his face reaffirms to Yoongi that Jimin knows exactly what he had just done.

“WHAT THE FUCK COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK THAT WOULD MAKE THAT OKAY?” Yoongi demands angrily, trying to keep his voice down so that his mother can't hear him. He feels completely caught off guard and confused, and hurt, but mostly furious. Jimin had kissed him while still dating Hani. What the fuck.

“I-” Jimin looks absolutely petrified, he still hasn't looked at Yoongi; eyes flickering around finding no solace in his surroundings. Jimin touches his lips with his hands and Yoongi wants to throw a chair at him. “Yoongi, I-” Jimin stammers out almost inaudibly, eyes still wider than Yoongi would have thought would be possible. Yoongi is about three seconds away from punching him.

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM.” Yoongi spits and he thinks he hears his own voice crack. Jimin stares at him for a few seconds, like he wants to say something but can't find the words. Yoongi is giving him his most murderous glare, like he's daring Jimin to say anything. Eventually Jimin closes his mouth and closes his eyes and picks himself up from the bed. He shuffles out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Yoongi stands still for a long while after Jimin leaves, completely at a loss of what he should do. He thinks the first thing he should do is tell Hani, but Yoongi has absolutely no idea how he's supposed to deal with that. Jimin had cheated on Hani of all people, what the hell. Yoongi feels like screaming, just how the hell was he supposed to break this to Hani. Hani had seemed to be so comfortable and trusting around Jimin, and Yoongi had let his guard down too. He had genuinely thought that Hani and Jimin were really good together. He had thought that he could trust Jimin with his sister's heart, but now it was not only in his power but it was his responsibility to crush her heart himself.

 _'Hey Hani, you know how you sometimes would make little hearts and send them off in the direction of Jimin and me, well you won't believe what happened.'_ Yoongi groans and falls onto his bed shoving his face into his pillow, the guilt slowly eating up his insides. Hani's boyfriend had kissed him; not just anyone, but Yoongi himself. Was it somehow Yoongi's fault? Was he giving Jimin all the wrong signals? He had thought about kissing Jimin more than once but he hadn't taken that desire very seriously, and he'd worked really hard to ignore it. It's not like Yoongi had asked Jimin to kiss him. _Did I ask him to?_  Yoongi thinks deliriously. He groans. Why didn't Jimin just let Yoongi be a bisexual sap with a crush on his sister's boyfriend in peace. Dutiful brothers weren't built to tell their sisters that their boyfriends cheated on them with him.  Just how was Hani supposed to take this.

Yoongi hears the front door open somewhere downstairs and his mothers voice drifts up through the floors. “Jimin, are you leaving already?” Yoongi can't hear Jimin's response, or make out any of the rest of the conversation but he hears the front door close at some point and he hopes that means Jimin has left.

He immediately pulls out his phone and types out a text to Hani, “I need to talk to you.” he writes and then hesitantly sends. He hears footsteps coming up the stairs and down the hallway to stop in front of his room. Someone knocks at his door and Yoongi prays to the heavens that its not Jimin.

It's not, it's his mom.

“Is everything okay, honey? Jimin just left and he looked devastated, did something happen?”

There are several reasons that Yoongi doesn't tell his mother what had just happened, the first is that his mother had never been tactful and he didn't want his mother to be the one to break the news to Hani. The second reason was that Yoongi thinks he should consult Hani before he starts telling people that her boyfriend had kissed him. The third reason was that Yoongi was not ready to tell anyone what had happen, barely understanding it himself. The fourth, more personal reason that Yoongi doesn't say anything is that he just really doesn't want his mother to know that he had kissed a boy, even if it had been unwarranted.

“I think he got a text from his mom saying that his dog was in the hospital.” Yoongi gloomily replies into his pillow.

“Oh that's really sad, I hope he's okay.”

Yoongi hopes he burns in hell.

. . .

“Hey, Yoongi.” Hani says gently as she creeps into Yoongi's room, closing the door softly behind her. Yoongi hasn't moved from the bed but he does manage to force himself to at least sit up to look Hani squarely in the face.

“Something happened...” Yoongi says cryptically, unsure of how the hell he's supposed to start, but he knows he has to start somewhere. He can't put his hands into his pockets when he's sitting like this so he ends up fiddling with the holes in his jeans.

“...Yeah.” Hani says and Yoongi stops picking at his jeans to look at her.

“I don't really know how to say this.” Yoongi tells her honestly; trying to make eye contact.

Hani comes to sit beside him. “You don't have to.” She says and Yoongi looks at her furrowing his eyebrows because he's pretty sure he does have to tell her but Hani sighs, “Jimin told me what happened.” she explains and Yoongi feels sick. Somehow the fact that Jimin had told Hani what he did only made it worse, and it doesn't make Jimin any less guilty.

Hani puts her arm around Yoongi's shoulder and pulls him into an awkward hug.“I'm sorry.” Yoongi says quietly to his knee, at a loss of how to comfort her in a way that didn't sound condescending. He'd always been bad at intimate moments like these.

“Thanks for telling me.” Hani replies just as quietly. They sit for a while, Yoongi doesn't really know what to say anymore. He looks over at his sister to see that she's biting her lip, looking at the floor of Yoongi's bedroom. “Since you're telling me the truth here I think I owe you some truth of my own.” Hani tells him.

“Yoongi, Jimin and I were never really dating.” Hani says sighing, “It was all fake, none of it was real, he was just pretending to be my boyfriend so that mom would stop asking questions.” Hani stops speaking for a moment, letting that settle in in Yoongi's mind as she takes a deep breath. She begins to speak again, “It's just, I don't-” She exhales slowly and her eyes flutter shut. “Yoongi, I like girls.”

Yoongi hears himself inhale slowly as the weight of that statement settles in and things start falling into place for him. There's a heaviness in the air as Yoongi processes what Hani had just confided in him. Yoongi doesn't trust himself to look at Hani. Hani was here, sitting with him, telling him a secret about herself that Yoongi had only shared about himself to one person in the whole wide world, and it hadn't even been Hani. And to put icing on the cake, Jimin hadn't betrayed anyone and now Yoongi has shouted at him for no good reason. Yoongi thinks he feels tears well up in his eyes,

“That's okay.” Yoongi says and he winces when his voice cracks. He's determined to let Hani know that he understands and supports because he knows that's what he would need to hear. “Boys are overrated anyway.” Yoongi jokes trying to break the tension. When Hani looks at him Yoongi sees that there are tears in her eyes too. She looks like she's halfway between crying and smiling and Yoongi knows this must have been a big moment for her. He feels an innate protectiveness well up in his chest.

“Come'ere you gay bastard.” Yoongi says pulling Hani into a tight hug, and she hugs him back just as hard. Yoongi wants to come out to Hani then too, but he thinks he'll let Hani have this moment, content to support her quietly from the sidelines for the time being; he doesn't need to make the conversation about himself. Yoongi feels in that moment that maybe he's doing okay as Hani's dutiful brother.

. . .

Yoongi thinks him and Hani have gotten closer. They still have petty fights and Yoongi still can't be the bigger person or show affection for shit, but for some reason he thinks that somewhere underneath, the familial ties that he had to Hani had strengthened.

Things with Hani's fake-boyfriend Jimin, on the other hand, have gotten more strained. Jimin still comes over every now and then and Yoongi will see him around the house, but Jimin is always there for Hani and he never seeks out Yoongi's company or goes any further than greeting him politely. Yoongi can't help but feel really guilty about it. In retrospect he thinks he overreacted to being kissed by Jimin. At the time of course he had been taken completely by surprise but Yoongi thinks he should have known Jimin better than to immediately conclude that he was a terrible person. He doesn't know exactly what he should have concluded but Yoongi thinks he could have given Jimin at least a little benefit of the doubt, let him explain himself. Yoongi thinks he deserves this treatment from Jimin, maybe he had gotten so wrapped up in his own guilt for wanting to kiss Jimin that the second Jimin had kissed him he had taken that all out on him. Jimin never deserved to be yelled at and Yoongi knows he's a trash friend for it.

Yoongi wonders if Jimin thinks that Yoongi rejected him or if Jimin is upset with Yoongi for shouting at him. In either case, Yoongi is pretty sure that if he wants to continue being friends with Jimin it is himself who has to take the plunge and make amends with Jimin. His reaction to Jimin kissing him had probably been a huge fear for Jimin and Jimin shouldn't have to be the one to bridge the rift that had formed between them. But for Yoongi it's always just been easier to avoid his problems by letting his relationships fall apart; assume that people are better off without him and rationalize that he'll probably screw up again. Against his better judgment, Yoongi does what he does best and gives Jimin some space.

Or at least he does for about a day; the next day he texts him.

 

Yoongi:

Can u meet me at the coffee shop at 7pm tm?

. . .

He doesn't expect a reply and so Yoongi isn't surprised when he doesn't get one. He half expects Jimin not to show up to that meeting at all, hell he could be busy, but Yoongi decides that he wants to give Jimin the chance to meet Yoongi of his own free will. Yoongi knows that he had hurt Jimin and he had already decided that he was going to apologize sometime regardless of whether Jimin showed up to this meeting or not, but part of him still hopes that Jimin will come see him.

Jimin, of course, the ridiculous sweetheart that he is, actually does show up albeit five minutes late. Yoongi sees Jimin coming in through the front door and he immediately looks nervously at the empty seat before him. Yoongi had already ordered Jimin's drink for him; a coffee with two cremes and two sugars. Jimin had ordered that exact drink since him and Yoongi had gotten coffee together at school.

“I almost didn't come.” Jimin admits sitting down across from Yoongi and Yoongi doesn't believe him.

“I got you a coffee.” Yoongi says looking down at his own cup of coffee that he grasps nervously in his hands.

“Thanks.” Jimin says and Yoongi's stomach starts doing somersaults, he really is terrible at these things. His instinct was to insult Jimin to break the tension; being genuine was too impossible a task. It strikes Yoongi that this is the first time he has really talked to Jimin since he had found out that him and Hani had never been dating in the first place. It was also the first time they had spoken since Jimin had kissed him.

“I, uh, wanted to apologize.” Yoongi says still staring at his cup, he notices his voice is several pitches lower than usual. “I didn't mean to yell at you, I was just caught off guard, I mean I know that's no good excuse, I just, well-” He breaks off his speech for a second, _let's not get off track_ he thinks, he hadn't come here to excuse himself, “I really just wanted to tell you that I should never have yelled at you. I don't know what I should have done but it wasn't that. You don't deserve to be yelled at."

There's about a beat of two seconds where Jimin doesn't reply and Yoongi still refuses to look up from his own coffee cup. He hears Jimin chuckle quietly, “I'm not mad at you.” he says and that makes Yoongi finally look up and make eye contact with Jimin. “It's not exactly your fault, is it?" A small ghost of a smile appears on Jimin's face, "I mean if I admit it to myself yeah I was a little upset but I really don't blame you.” Jimin smiles one of the smallest supportive smiles at Yoongi and Yoongi thinks he's falling in love all over again. “Thank you though,” Jimin says and in that moment he looks very small.

Yoongi wants to reach out and hold Jimin's hand or stroke his hair, but his hands never leave his coffee. “Are we still friends?” Yoongi asks instead.

Jimin's smile is back, growing on his face as naturally as flowers bloom, “Yeah, we're still friends.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this chapter was impossible...  
> two more to go! :)


	10. The Fun Boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally introduced the other members!!!!! I literally wrote this chapter so I could include them in this fic yw

Yoongi is half hoping that Jimin will randomly kiss him again but when he doesn't Yoongi thinks that's okay too. Yoongi wonders if he had scared Jimin off; maybe Jimin didn't want to kiss boys that had shouted at him. Maybe Yoongi didn't want to kiss boys in general. Maybe it would save Yoongi a lot of hassle if he just let Jimin assume that he had outright rejected his advances. Maybe Yoongi technically had. And maybe Yoongi is just happy having Jimin around, even just as a friend.

And maybe being friends with Jimin means being friends with Jimin's friends too. In any case as it had turned out now sometimes all seven of them would hang together because somewhere along the way Jimin's friends had become Yoongi's friends and Yoongi's friends Jimin's. They're eating lunch around a table in the mall together: him, Jimin, Hoseok, Soekjin, Namjoon, Taehyung, and Jungkook. Much to Yoongi's disgrace, Jimin had affectionately named the seven of them the “fun boys” and for some reason that had stuck. Jimin's friends Jungkook and Taehyung had fit with Yoongi's friends like keys to locks and so it wasn't rare for Yoongi to find out that Soekjin had gone to lunch with Jungkook or that Hoseok, Namjoon and Taehyung had all gone to the movies together.

During the entire lunch Hoseok keeps making suggestive faces at Yoongi and gesturing to Jimin. Normally that would be fine and Yoongi would ignore it except that Hoseok had also been doing the reverse process to Jimin. Ever since Hoseok and Jimin had become friends Yoongi could never be sure how much Hoseok knew. It's not like Yoongi could ask him whether or not Jimin talks about him (he does anyway and Hoseok refuses to tell him anything, saying things like “ask him yourself,” and “that's between me and Jimin asshole”).

“We should watch a movie today.” Jungkook is saying when Yoongi tunes into the conversation.

Yoongi takes that as an invitation to drawl “All seven of us? It better not be a popular movie.”

Taehyung pouts, “Dude I think we've seen everything in theaters by now, plus I'm flat broke.”

Jimin says, “Oh, I actually really wanted to see that movie that came out a while ago, the one with like the shady mutant ducks that try to take over the world; The Retconning or something? Is that still in theaters?”

Soekjin hums a noise of recognition, “Oh, yeah I think so. My brother keeps telling me about it, he says its really fun.”

“Ah! I love fun movies.” Hoseok claims.

Namjoon groans, “I've seen that movie like sixty times.”

Hoseok grins at him,“How 'bout a sixty first time? Or you can just not watch it with us.” he teases making Namjoon groan again.

“Taehyung help me.” Namjoon whines.

Taehyung looks around the table pouting, “Yeah, why do we have to see a movie, why can't we just go to the park or something.” he says.

Jungkook pipes in, “I mean, you and Namjoon can go to the park and the rest of us can go and see that movie.” he suggests helpfully, this time both Taehyung and Namjoon groan.

Namjoon says, “Why don't we watch, I don't know, any other movie.” and Taehyung groans.

Jungkook whines, “Come on, you guys can entertain yourselves for two hours while we watch a movie.”

Taehyung pouts, “I don't know what I ever did to make you hate me like this.” he says.

Namjoon drops his head onto the table, “Yeah, why do you guys hate us.” he complains and Soekjin pats his back.

“I don't even like Joonie.” Taehyung says and laughs when Namjoon lurches across the table threateningly at him.

Namjoon mourns,“How am I supposed to deal with this little shit alone for two hours.”

Yoongi looks at Namjoon seriously and says “Now you know why we're doing specifically doing what Taehyung doesn't want to do, we're trying to get rid of him.”

Taehyung gives Yoongi a scandalized look.“You know what Joonie, I don't think I even want to be around these people anymore, lets do something way more exciting than go to the movies.” he says.

“We could buy some grapes and feed the real ducks at the park.” Namjoon goads.

“Yeah! Real live ducks, way better than evil CGI ones.” Taehyung confirms side-eyeing the rest of the table.

“Actually I think they used real ducks and practical effects.” Hoseok says and Jimin whacks him.

. . .

When they finally get to the theater where The Retconning is scheduled for a screening in fifteen minutes, Yoongi thinks that they are all going to wait in line to buy their own individual tickets. That is, Yoongi thought that was what they were going to do until Hoseok drags him away to help him buy popcorn and snacks, making a deal with the others that if they pay for tickets him and Yoongi will pay for snacks.

“Dude snacks are fucking expensive I don't want to pay for this.” Yoongi complains while being dragged by the arm to the food lines.

Hoseok brushes him off and whispers into Yoongi's ear, “Dude, why haven't you made a move on Jimin yet, he literally kissed you what more proof do you need that he wants you to ask him out.”

Yoongi should have known Hoseok had nefarious plans other than coercing Yoongi into buying him food. He looks at Hoseok agitated, not really wanting to justify his decision to let him and Jimin stay friends. He makes a move to walk away but Hoseok grabs his arm and pulls him back smiling. “Yoongi I'm trying to help you out here.” Hoseok says and Yoongi groans. “Is this that swearing off boys thing? When are you going to get over that? You obviously like him dude, just let it happen.”

Yoongi narrows his eyes at Hoseok, “I didn't tell you that I liked boys so you would pressure me into actually dating them, besides that's not the only issue here.”

“Then what could possibly be the problem?” Hoseok presses.

“I don't know, I don't have to tell you.” Yoongi says and Hoseok shoves him playfully. There were actual reasons Yoongi hadn't asked out Jimin yet, Yoongi thinks, other than his general lack of initiative in all things romantic. For instance he didn't know whether or not he'd be good for Jimin, he didn't really want to be responsible for hurting him again, and he's pretty sure Jimin, even if he still liked Yoongi, deserved way better than him.

“Yo, just do it, just kiss him, right on the mouth!” Hoseok tells him and Yoongi tries to shush him. “Normally I'd tell Jimin to do it because you've always been emotionally constipated but I think you managed to scare him off last time.” Hoseok tsks disapprovingly.

“I thought he was cheating on my sister!”

Hoseok sighs, “If you're not going to up and kiss him at least like hold his hand or something, see how that feels. You know, baby steps.” Hoseok says and Yoongi waves him off.

“Yeah yeah, if I confess my love for him he'll confess back and everything will work out perfectly in the end.” Yoongi says sarcastically.

“I'm not saying its not complicated and I'm not saying it won't be hard, but there's really no reason you shouldn't at least try.” Hoseok pauses to blow air out of his mouth. “Yoongi, Jimin really likes you, and he's not wrong to.” Hoseok is giving Yoongi a meaningful look and Yoongi had learned that it's always best to listen when Hoseok gets serious like this but that doesn't stop him from giving Hoseok a withering look. They're quiet for a while, nothing else really needing to be said. Eventually Hoseok speaks again, “So, are you excited to see this movie? You haven't seen it before, right?”

“No, I haven't seen it but I've heard Hani talking about it, I think she really wanted to see it.” Yoongi says.

“I read a lot of reviews for it online when it first came out, it got 8.8 stars on Read About It, most of the reviews are super positive.” Hoseok says and Yoongi nods along. “I think it's going to be awesome.”

Jimin's voice carries out over to them, “Of course it's going to be awesome, I chose it!” he announces, carrying three tickets in his hand, as he slings his arm over Hoseok. “Here are your tickets, gentlemen.” Jimin hands Hoseok and Yoongi each a ticket.

Jungkook is the next to approach, “Why are the lines always so long, I am craving popcorn already.” he complains.

Yoongi says “Oh sorry, yes, I'll tell the other customers to leave.”

“Please do.” Soekjin says bouncing anxiously where he stands.

. . .

In the actual theater Yoongi ends up (not accidentally) sitting next to Jimin at the end of the row. Jimin uses the armrest and so Yoongi strategically doesn't (his strategy is to do nothing ever). During the commercials Yoongi doesn't hold back from making snarky comments in Jimin's ear but Jimin usually laughs so Yoongi doesn't feel too bad. Sometimes Jimin will make comments back that make Yoongi laugh. It's comfortable and reminds Yoongi of when they would watch movies alone together on either of their laptops.

When the movie begins Yoongi turns his attention towards the movie screen. He watches as a scene fades in from black, revealing some ducks chattering on a path in a park, they scatter and fly away when a boy and a girl walk through them down the path.

Yoongi had heard about the movie before. The way it was set up was as if it were a series of emails sent back and forth between the two main characters written in script format because of a creative choice by the female character. Half the plot of the movie is apparently the two characters having to deal with that choice because writing in script format means that they have to deal with a precarious balance of continuity, the introduction and resolution of plots, and the intricacies of narrative structure. Also there were ducks. Apparently the plot had to revolve around evil ducks for some reason.

“The ducks are symbolic of my love for you.” the girl says looking at the ducks around the park and Yoongi takes that as his cue to tune out the movie. Instead he looks over to Jimin and feels his own expression soften and his heart seizes in his chest. Sometimes it was nice to just look at Jimin. He has such a soft featured face and a brightness that radiates from him especially strongly when he smiles. Yoongi thinks that he just really likes Jimin's face, and maybe it was just because it looked like Jimin. Yoongi doesn't even realize that he's staring but at some point Jimin's eyes flicker over to glance at Yoongi before he grabs Yoongi's chin in his fingers and turns Yoongi's head to face the screen for him. Jimin promptly whispers a comment to Yoongi about the movie which makes Yoongi snort and the lady in front of them shush him.

The characters duck (no pun intended) behind a building and the boy pulls a phone out of his jacket pocket and shoves a picture on it into the girl's face, “Does this look symbolic of love to you?” The picture on the screen reveals the picture the boy was showing the girl. The picture is of ducks with guns and a beaten up man sitting tied up in a chair.

The girl looks at the picture confused, “Yes?” she says; the audience laughs. Jimin laughs from beside him and Yoongi looks over at him, “this movie is stupid.” Jimin whispers to Yoongi. Yoongi didn't really know whether or not the movie was stupid because he had hardly been paying attention and already Yoongi has trouble turning back to the movie. Instead Yoongi finds himself suddenly just fascinated by Jimin's eyelashes, or rather lack there of.

“Dude, where are your eyelashes?” Yoongi says and Jimin hits him.

“Sh, I'm trying to watch this movie.” Jimin scolds, “Besides I could say the same to you.”

“I have longer eyelashes than you.” Yoongi retorts and Jimin grins, further obscuring his eyelashes.

They turn back to the movie but Yoongi finds he's distracted again. It's starting to bother him what Hoseok had said to him and holding Jimin's hand would be really easy. Should Yoongi actually try making it work with Jimin? Yoongi finds himself getting gradually more and more tempted by the prospect of holding Jimin's hand. Jimin's hand is just, right there, on the armrest, if Yoongi just slipped his hand underneath it Jimin might not even notice.

Actually slipping his hand underneath Jimin's and intertwining their fingers is a lot easier than Yoongi had expected. Once he's holding Jimin's hand he can't even believe it himself. Jimin's palms are warm against his, and there's a soft pressure against his skin where Jimin's fingers are interlocked with his. Yoongi stares at their hands immobilized. Out of the corner of his eye he thinks he sees Jimin turn to look at him but he can't get himself to actually take the leap and check, too busy staring at their hands.

If Jimin is looking at him he does so for a long time before looking back at the movie screen, briefly squeezing Yoongi's hand. Even after more than a year Jimin still manages to make Yoongi's heart skip a beat. Jimin puts his head on Yoongi's shoulder and Yoongi thinks that might be one of his favourite things that Jimin does. He thinks that everything Jimin does is like that.

Yoongi finds it hard to concentrate on the movie for a while, but he manages to tune back as the main female character is fighting off waves of ducks with a beer bottle as she yells, “How's this for symbolism!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to stop putting off editing for the entire week and then not having enough time to do it adequately... anyway
> 
> I realized I haven't said this formally yet but thanks for all the comments and kudos!!!!! Y'all are really awesome and i love each and every one of u!! im sorry that i never got around to replying to u all ;_; i will try to pick up the slack tho
> 
> at least there's hand holding now! And next week is the last chapter x.x


	11. In Which There is Fluff; Pure, Shameless Fluff.

Jimin has final exams coming up so he isn't coming around very often these days, but sometimes he will come over to sit on the floor in the living room, Hani's or Yoongi's room. One time when Jimin is studying in Yoongi's room he actually kicks Yoongi out of his own room for distracting him. Another time he drags Yoongi into Hani's room and then, after neglecting his studies for about an hour to talk to them, kicks them both out for talking while he was trying to concentrate. Other than those few times Yoongi hardly does see Jimin anymore and Yoongi makes it no secret to anyone that he plans on moping about it to anyone that will listen.

The thing about exam time is that it was just an extended period of time where Jimin just wasn't around Yoongi, and that was just the worst. It's different when Yoongi can't see Jimin because of something as irrelevant as exam time and studying. At least when Yoongi was giving Jimin space or Jimin was ignoring him Yoongi was able to justify to himself why he couldn't see Jimin and remind himself why seeing Jimin all the time was a bad thing. Just not having Jimin around him for no good reason sucked.

Yoongi knows the exact date and time that Jimin has his final exam because he had asked Jimin every single time he had seen him in the few previous weeks. When that day arises Yoongi is sprawled out on the couch on his laptop waiting for Jimin to get there. Yoongi had actually been waiting there since half a hour before Jimin's last exam started but Jimin did not need to know that. Hani had joined him about half an hour ago and is sitting on the armchair on her phone. The second the doorbell rings Yoongi practically throws himself off the couch and has to hold himself back from running to the door.

Once reached he stops and takes a breath, hiding the grin from his face. He opens the door casually and looks over at Jimin boredly. “Oh its you.” He says feigning disinterest.

Jimin grins at him, “Nice to see you too, asshole.”

“Hm? Oh yes it is nice to see you I guess, I was expecting a package in the mail is all.” Yoongi drawls.

Jimin laughs, “Bullshit.” He says, “You've been begging me to come over as soon as my exams are finished for a month.”

Yoongi raises an eyebrow, “Hm, I don't recall.” he says. “I think I said _once_ that I wouldn't _mind_ if you came over.”

Jimin doesn't miss a beat, “Admit it, you're clingy as hell.”

“Clingy?” Yoongi responds, “No, I wouldn't say that: Indifferent maybe.”

“Why are you being like this,” Jimin complains, not hiding his laughter, “I don't believe you.”

“It's true though,” Yoongi says, “I barely even notice when you're around.”

Jimin raises his eyebrows then looks to Yoongi's left. “Hey Hani.” He says.

Yoongi looks over his shoulder to see Hani come up behind him, she begins speaking, “Not to butt in or anything but Yoongi's been sitting on the sofa for hours waiting for you.”

Jimin makes a noise of triumph but Yoongi coolly replies, “Oh did you think I was waiting for Jimin? I was waiting for my package actually.” Jimin laughs, cocking his head to the left angrily.

“You were waiting on the couch for mail to arrive?”

“A very special male.” Yoongi says cleverly making brief eye contact with Jimin.

Hani ignores him, “Jimin, how did your exams go?”

“Ah they went okay.” Jimin replies smiling, “actually I was about to ask Yoongi to go on a walk with me to celebrate the fact that I finished them, but since I found out that he's indifferent towards me maybe you can come instead.”

“Oh no, I can go.” Yoongi says all too quickly.

“Are you sure?” Jimin replies amused, “I mean you aren't too indifferent to me?”

“Well it is a nice day.” Yoongi says boredly, “I consider it a worthy sacrifice of my time.” he says while putting on his shoes.

“Yoongi I swear to god.” Jimin starts.

. . .

 

Once they're out the door Yoongi drops all pretenses of his failed attempts at being funny. “Really, It's good to see you.” He says and Jimin smiles.

There are several places they could walk that they don't really discuss before setting off in a random direction. At first Yoongi badgers Jimin about how his exams went and then about how school is going and then about all the things he wants to do this summer with Jimin. They also talk about the weather, movies and their friends. Every once in a while they'll fall into a comfortable silence, where Yoongi will just allow himself to exist in that moment, enjoying the spring air. Whenever their hands brush he'll feel Jimin looking at him and finally Yoongi takes the initiative and links their hands together.

They end up in one the parks near Yoongi's home, sitting side by side on a park bench overlooking the pond. They aren't holding hands anymore but they're close enough that Yoongi can feel it when Jimin moves. They're silent for a really long time, just gazing over the water. Jimin is the first person who speaks, “The ducks are symbolic of our love.” Jimin tells Yoongi.

Yoongi looks over the pond which is completely void of ducks, “There are no ducks.” he says. Jimin snickers.

“You little shit.” Yoongi says looking over at Jimin and knocking his shoulder gently against his, Jimin looks back at him still snickering. Yoongi finds himself mesmerized by the life in Jimin's eyes and the softness of Jimins expression, fascinated by the microexpressions that flicker across his face and the quiet curiosity in his eyes when Yoongi doesn't look away. Yoongi's gaze shifts to Jimin's lips. Jimin has a really nice mouth; soft, plush. It's different when it's stretched into a smile or shaping words and sentences that Yoongi thinks he'll never tire of; less tempting. Yoongi could probably wax poetic about any part of Jimin but Yoongi thinks Jimin's mouth was of particular significance.

“I really want to kiss you right now.” Yoongi says, his own voice sounds distant and alien in his ears. He lets his gaze focus back on Jimin's eyes.

Jimin's eyes flicker up to make eye contact with Yoongi, he cocks his head to the side and smiles the littlest smile, “What's stopping you?” Jimin asks and Yoongi can't think of a single thing.

Yoongi doesn't even remember leaning in, the first press of his lips against Jimin's effectively frying all the circuitry in his brain. Jimin's lips are warm and soft against his; pliant as he parts his lips slightly and brings his hands up to cup Jimin's face, thumbing his cheek. Jimin's hands come up to rest on Yoongi's chest, bunching up the fabric of his shirt as it dangles loosely from his frame. Yoongi angles his and Jimin's face better as he slots the corners of their mouths together. He feels Jimin's tongue lick at his lips and he immediately parts them, allowing Jimin to touch his tongue to the inside of Yoongi's mouth.

It's amazing to Yoongi how gentle and soft Jimin is; how careful his movement is. Yoongi becomes hyper-aware of the way Jimin responds to him, how he reacts immediately to his small changes in angles, the way he breathes in the small pockets of air between them, how his grip on Yoongi's shirt tightens and relaxes.

It takes a long time for Yoongi to remember that they're in a public place, and even longer for him to actually care at all about the outside world. Even though this particular bench was obscured by a bush and the park wasn't very popular to begin with, it was still generally frowned upon to graphically make out with people on public benches. Remorsefully Yoongi pulls away from Jimin who chases his lips making Yoongi place one final chaste kiss on his mouth.

Yoongi laments the fact that Jimin was so damn intoxicating.“Maybe we should head back.” Yoongi says gently and the way that Jimin looks at him with a sort of dazed look in his eyes, lips still slick from Yoongi having just kissed him makes Yoongi have to kiss him just one more time. And then another time. And then Jimin kisses him.

“We should really head back.” Yoongi says with finality right before his eyes flutter shut as Jimin kisses him again.

Jimin pulls back first, “Okay,” he says jumping up, he holds out his hand for Yoongi to take. They get about three steps before Yoongi stops suddenly and pulls Jimin back to him, unable to last more than five seconds without kissing Jimin, hands still tangled together. They stand with their foreheads together for a while, trading chaste kisses, breathing each others air.

On the way back Yoongi thinks about how him and Jimin had been back when they were just statistics partners. Somehow Jimin had always managed to get under Yoongi's skin, and Yoongi wonders how he had convinced himself to let Jimin go in the first place. Yoongi is again reminded that he has no idea what Jimin thinks about the end of their relationship. He hadn't seemed happy about it, but he had also let it happen in the first place. Yoongi wonders what Jimin thinks about how that had happened, he realizes he has no idea how natural the dwindling of their relationship felt. He takes a deep breath; he should probably tell Jimin about it.

“Hey, I should probably get this out in the air, it's kinda completely my fault that we stopped talking in the first place?” Yoongi says eventually as he mostly looks at the street ahead. Jimin stops in his tracks, pulling Yoongi back by the hand to look at him queerly. Yoongi laughs nervously, “Yeah it wasn't you, or us that was the problem. It was me, I was the problem. I couldn't handle-” Yoongi stops to blow air out of his nose frustrated, “Ah, this is stupid.” he says.

Jimin is still giving him that same look, “Couldn't handle what?” he prompts slowly.

“Ah, how do I say this,” Yoongi muses. _Couldn't handle being around you._ No, that sounds really rude, _Couldn't handle having a giant crush on you._ No that sounds sappy and weird. Yoongi huffs annoyed. “God damn it, just forget it, I'm stupid, just accept that I'm stupid and that's why I do stupid things.”

Yoongi starts to move away but Jimin holds onto his hand to hold him in place, “Yoongi.” he says sternly and when Yoongi turns back to look at him he sees a subtle pain in his eyes, a vulnerability, that Yoongi hadn't even realized he had left there. “Yoongi,” He says again looking steadfastly into Yoongi's eyes, “You brought this up. After months of radio silence and then pretending like nothing happened you're the one to bring this up.” He exhales slowly, “I tried _really_ hard to keep up contact with you, and to hear that you were intentionally blowing me off? What am I supposed to say, Yoongi? It's okay? I get that you're stupid and accept that you do stupid things like just cut me out of your life like it's nothing? How am I supposed to know this won't happen again?”

“It won't happen again.” Yoongi says quietly and Jimin scoffs.

“Yeah whatever, you brought it up.” Jimin says.

Yoongi had not imagined this would happen. Jimin was upset. Yoongi had made Jimin upset. “Jimin I swear to god it won't happen again. I didn't think it was a big deal at the time, I'm sorry I didn't think it through.”

Jimin sighs, “Yeah, okay.” he says.

“Do you wanna know why I did?”

Jimin huffs a breath, “I guess.” he says.

“Okay so hear me out, I had this pact with myself where I swore that I would never date a boy and you kind of threatened that pact, sorry I never told you. I guess I ended up convincing myself that if you and I weren't friends then the pact wouldn't be threatened anymore... Apparently it never occurred to me that maybe it was the pact that was the problem and not my friendship with you. I just thought that going from statistics partners to whatever was next was terrifying and that if I stopped what we had when we were partners by obligation then maybe that could prevent any heartbreak. I guess I wasn't thinking very clearly. ”

“You stopped talking to me because you wanted to date me too much?” Jimin asks bemusedly.

“That's the gist of it yeah.

Jimin's manages to continue to look vaguely irked for approximately two seconds before his face starts to screw up like he's trying to hold in laughter and suddenly he's giggling to himself, crouching over to squat on the sidewalk.

Yoongi frowns, “What.”

Jimin shakes his head before grinning up at Yoongi, “Nothing, I'm just so glad you didn't get my text.” he says earnestly, still giggling.

“Ah right, that fucking text.” Yoongi says and Jimin laughs harder, “Dude what the hell was in that text?”

Jimin grins as he pushes himself off the ground, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He shoves the screen in Yoongi's face, a text conversation, but it's blurry because the screen is shaking from Jimin's laughter so Yoongi takes the phone into his own hands. The contact name says “Asshole” and as Yoongi scrolls up curiously he sees about eighteen texts sent from Jimin's phone with no responses.

“Hey! Just look at the ones on the screen!” Jimin protests reaching for his phone but Yoongi dodges him easily. He scrolls up to the last message he had responded to.

 

_**April 6 th 5:04pm** _

_good luck on your exams :)_

 

_**April 8 th 9:00pm** _

_thx u 2_

 

Smooth Yoongi.

 

_**April 19 th 12:38pm** _

_i think i did okay, how about u?_

 

_**April 20 th 3:05pm** _

_Hello :)_

 

_**April 21 st 8:39am** _

_Good morning!! R u up? :PP_

 

_**April 22 nd 1:33pm** _

_Its so cold today... so annoying. I thought winter was supposed to be over!!! smh_

 

_**April 25 th 3:46pm** _

_i lost my pen ;_; send help_

 

_**May 1 st 11:56am** _

_I swear pigeons are literally the worst..._

 

_**May 5 th 9:13am** _

_We should hangout sometime this summer_

 

_**May 7 st 8:34pm** _

_Yoongi._

 

_**May 8 st 1:09pm** _

_Yoongi?_

 

_**May 9 th 2:39pm** _

_Hello?_

 

_**May 9 th 5:43pm** _

_So we're just ignoring me completely now?_

 

_**May 9 th 6:16pm** _

_Okay..._

 

_**May 11 th 9:52am** _

_Yoongi!!!!! Talk to me!!!!!_

 

_**May 12 th 10:21pm** _

_://// I stg Yoongi if u got a new number and didnt tell me....._

 

_**May 15 th 1:08am** _

_Okay so since u arent returning any of my texts here goes nothing_

 

_**May 15 th 1:47am** _

_Yoongi, i think i will regret this if i dont say this to u ever but ur a really amazing person? Ur funny, and lowkey sweet, and hardworking when u set ur mind to a task and i think im a little bit in love with you? Haha._

 

_**May 15 th 1:49am** _

_Fuck that was weird, I'm sorry. Here's hoping you actually did break your phone._

 

_**May 15 th 1:52am** _

_I was maybe wondering if you wanted to have lunch sometime? Like even as friends I hope i didn't make this weird... I don't want to lose you_

 

_**May 15 th 2:04am** _

_plz respond_

 

That's the last text Jimin sent him, 'please respond'. Yoongi feels guilt well up in his throat. He feels more like an asshole than he has in years and he almost constantly feels vaguely like an asshole. “I'm such a fucking idiot.” he exhales.

Jimin chuckles taking his phone out from Yoongi's hands nodding. “Yeah.” he affirms, putting his phone in his pocket; his ears are turning red.

“I'm so stupid.” Yoongi says, looking at Jimin.

“Yeah.” Jimin affirms again,and Yoongi notes that Jimin's entire face has turned a light shade of pink. He is pressing his lips together and his face screws up in embarrassment. He walks forward to hide his head in the crook of Yoongi's neck resting his hands on Yoongi's chest. “I can't believe I sent that text.” he stops, “And, to you of all people, asshole.”

Yoongi snorts and brings his hands up to loosely rest on Jimin's hips. Jimin breathes a laugh again and starts lightly hitting Yoongi's chest with loosely balled fists. Yoongi only pulls Jimin closer until his head rests on Jimin's shoulder and Jimin's hands are trapped between their chests. “I'm sorry.” Yoongi says into Jimin's hair.

“I know.” Jimin says softly.

“It won't happen again.”

“It better not.”

He holds Jimin close for a bit, quietly. He doesn't know how an asshole like him could easily drop someone like Jimin out of his life and still have Jimin here with him and so close. “Are you still a little bit in love with me?” He teases.

“I don't think I ever wasn't.” Jimin replies quietly.

. . .

 

Yoongi thinks Jimin is asleep, his head is resting on Yoongi's lap and he hasn't shifted much if at all in the last hour. After they had come back from the park they had found Hani watching television and they immediately joined her. Jimin is curled inwards towards the couch, eyes closed and breathing shallow. Yoongi is watching his hands card through Jimin's hair, brushing gently at his bangs. Jimin's Jimin's chest rises and falls as he breathes softly

“I swear sometimes I think you're the one that's dating Jimin.” Hani says suddenly.

“No offense but that's because you guys aren't particularly convincing.” Yoongi replies.

“We convinced you.” Hani retorts.

“It would have been weird if I would have questioned you actually dating the person you said you were dating. Also to be fair I thought you two were a really awkward couple.” Yoongi defends.

Hani shrugs, “That's the thing about being in a heterosexual relationship though, no one questions it. I could just be standing beside Jimin and people would ask us how long we'd been together. Likewise if I'm literally cuddling in my bed with my girlfriend people just think it's platonic. It's stupid but sometimes it's convenient, but without the hetero glasses on it's pretty clearly you that is dating my boyfriend.”

Yoongi snorts, “Should I ask him out?”

“Yeah, be my guest.”

“Hey Jimin, do you wanna go out?”

Jimin mumbles something into his thigh sleepily, Yoongi thinks it's “Shut up.”

“I think that was a yes” Yoongi says.

“Oh that's nice.” Hani says.

“Wow I can't believe we are sharing a boyfriend, this has got to be the ultimate way for siblings to bond.” Yoongi says grinning.

“Ew gross I never thought about it that way, leave my boyfriend alone.” Hani whines.

“No it's too late, now I have to kiss him.” Yoongi insists.

Hani hides her face in her hands, “Noo don't do it.”

“I'm gonna do it.” Yoongi leans forward threateningly.

“Nooo.” Hani whines pitifully.

“I'm gonna do it!” Yoongi repeats leaning forward even further, his mouth actually only getting closer to Jimin's ear. Yoongi has his mouth exaggeratedly pursed, lips about an inch away from Jimin's ear when Jimin shifts a bit, turns his head, grabs Yoongi's shirt by the collar, leans up the rest of the distance and kisses him. Yoongi's body immediately responds to the familiar press of lips and his limbs relax and his eyes close.

“Oh gross I didn't actually expect you to do it!” Hani squeals.

Yoongi starts to pull back to obnoxiously grin at Hani but Jimin takes advantage of that brief moment to prop himself up until he's half sitting up and he works his hands up from Yoongi's shirt to get tangled in his hair, pulling Yoongi back down into a deeper kiss.

“Oh gross, no stop!” Hani gags and that makes Jimin snicker into the kiss which makes Yoongi just want to kiss him more. Jimin has to break the kiss because he starts laughing too hard and Yoongi pushes him away towards the other end of the couch and then clambers over him to kiss that smile right off his face but he has to stop frequently because him and Jimin keep snickering.

That's enough to make Hani leave, complaining that no one respects her in this house. Yoongi smiles into the kiss. Sometimes, Yoongi thinks, being a dutiful boyfriend to Jimin can be just as important as being a dutiful brother.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so so much for reading this and keeping up with it, i love you!


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